Wings of Time
by LoweFantasy
Summary: When Yugi and friends find a amnesiac girl lost in the rain who seems to share a connection with Yami's past, they take her in. But when Yugi starts falling for her and Yami starts to remember a woman from the future who wouldn't marry him, time begins to shift over and past and future begin to blend. Not Yaoi. YugiXOCXYami
1. Caught Dumb in the Rain

**Hey! I'm back! I'm reposting this story. I'm sorry I took it off, but I thought I'd never finish it. I was uber prego, which kills your brain, but now I can write like a super sayan and my baby is adorable! His name is Kai. ^.^ I will update this once a week since I have a backlog of many chapters. **

**Please review, because I desperately want to know what you're thinking! It helps me become a better writer. Please enjoy this rough draft. **

The Wings of Time

By LoweFantasy

Chapter 1: Caught Dumb in the Rain

"I swear! There were great bloody pads all over my tent! Women are not innocent or nice at all-gods, Tristan, stop laughing!"

The young man in question just howled all the louder, rolling back onto the seat of the van Yugi's grandfather had rented for the weekend. Joey glared at the brunette besides him.

"It's not funny! I was traumatized for life! And then they started screaming in the middle of the night like their heads were being torn off and screaming about bears! No one could have being unscarred by that."

"Obviously," snorted Tristan. Behind him, Yugi smiled weakly to Tea, who sighed heavily, leaning on her hand and looking out the tinted window. Her short, brown hair hid half of her expression.

"We won't be eaten by bears." said Yugi calmly. "I'm pretty sure there aren't bears in Japan anyways. Right grandpa?"

"Oh no, there's something worse than bears. The Yeti."

Yugi blanched. Tristan laughed some more, and Joey gritted his teeth.

"I hope something ugly eats you in the middle of the night." he said to Tristan. "You'd deserve it."

"Aw, come on, that's not very nice." said Tristan, wiping tears from his eyes.

"It's plenty nice where I'm coming from, you git."

"Hey, gramps, how long until we get there?" asked Yugi, not bothering to ask what the Yeti crap was all about. He had a hard enough time sleeping outside as it was ever since duelist kingdom. His grandfather smiled in the rear view mirror to them. Spruce and various trees slipped past them as the white van weaved through the narrow roads.

"Just about there, if you lot can stay quiet long enough for me not to drive over a cliff."

Tea sighed again. The sound caught Yugi's attention and he turned to her with a faint look of concern. She had been the one to suggest the camping trip for summer break, but so far she had fallen quiet, so unlike her bubbly chatty self, sighing and staring at the window with her lips pursed tight. Yugi had the feeling he didn't want to know, but felt the question bubble to his lips anyways.

"What's on your mind?"

"I already told you, it's nothing." she said.

Yugi scowled. Besides him, invisible to all but him, sat a nearly mirror like image of himself, except taller and with sharp, challenging eyes. The spirit frowned at Tea as well.

"I've seen women act like that before." he said to Yugi, the only one that could hear him. "It always has to do with some romantic interest. Don't ask." He made a face and Yugi had to hold down a chuckle. It wouldn't do to suddenly burst out laughing, even when his friends knew that Yami existed. But his comment only made Yugi wonder more: did Tea have problems concerning romance?

The thought made him strangely uncomfortable, and he fiddled with his millennium puzzle, a nervous habit he had picked up. He didn't much like thinking about girls in that category. Being an official midget with a score of geek points to make even the greatest nerd embarrassed made dating a dangerous subject to think about.

Yami now frowned at him too.

They eventually made it to the legendary camping spot of his grandfather's. To Yugi, it was beautiful, like a secret getaway, but to his friends it was simply a flat spot in the middle of some trees with a stream besides it. What Tea thought about it all was a mystery. The only times she bothered to speak were to scold Tristan and Joey for joking about falling into the river while doing number two and fish that swam into uncomfortable places if you peed in the wrong place. It was one of the few times Yugi was jealous of the ancient Pharaoh, who laughed long and hard without fear of her angry gaze. But that jealousy soon vanished as the spirit amused him with bewildered inspections of the hot dogs.

That night, after loud storytelling, fire roasted foods, and old astronomy lessons from his grandfather, Yugi still felt the strange discomfort. As he heard Joey, his tent mate, slowly slip into snores, he sat up and unzipped his tent.

"Where are you going?"

The spirit of before, Yami, crouched beside him in the tent, his eyes curious. Yugi waited till he was outside to answer.

"I'm…not quite sure. I'm just worried about Tea. And…I dunno. I just can't sleep."

"You sense it too then?"

"Sense what?"

The Pharaoh frowned towards the forest. "I'm not sure. Just…anticipation. I've been feeling it since I've gotten onto this mountain."

"Well…no. And if I did I probably mistook it for excitement. I like camping."

Yami smiled. "I know."

Yugi followed his gaze to the trees. The night wasn't as foreboding as he thought it would be without his flashlight. The moonlight and stars lit up the land and he thought he could make out even the shadows beneath the gentle, silvery light. He could hear his grandfather's snores sounding across the clearing, nearly in perfect timing with Joey's. It made him grin. Still, the uneasiness swirled in his stomach.

"Yugi, where are you going?"

There was a sense of alarm to the Pharaoh's voice as Yugi made his way down to the river. The cool air of the night made him shiver inside his dark blue flannel pajamas.

"I'm just…going to go think."

"What do you have to think about? Is something bothering you?"

Yugi hesitated before sitting down atop a boulder next to the stream. "I'm not sure…I just feel…uneasy. I don't think Tea's bothered by anything romantic. I think it's something else."

The spirit sat beside him on the rock, violet-red eyes watching him carefully.

"I'm sure there's no reason to worry. With all those rants on friendship I'm sure if it was something bad she would tell you about it. Have some faith in her, Yugi. She can take care of herself."

"Yes, but…" Yugi didn't know where he was going with that sentence. But the kind smile Yami gave him assured him he understood. He put an insubstantial hand on Yugi's shoulder, which he oddly felt.

"You have a loving heart, Yugi. You're friends are lucky to have you."

His face heated up and he ducked his head in attempts to hide it between his legs. "If you say so. But I think I'm the lucky one. I'm not much use as a friend compared to what they have done for me…for what you've done for me."

Yami shook his head, gripping his hikari's shoulder tighter. "When will you get over that mindset?"

"Don't worry about it."

"I'll worry."

Yugi sighed, a thing not unlike Tea's own sighs that day. A comfortable silence passed between them in which crickets thrummed in the grasses and the stream hushed to them. An owl hooted somewhere in the distance. Yugi found himself fascinated by the glitter of the stars reflected on the faceted surface of the river. It made the water look like diamond.

"So," asked Yugi a few minutes later when his feet had turned numb against the stone. "If Tea is in the throws of some crazy love, who do you think is the special someone?"

"Why, me, of course."

"Yami!"

The spirit just threw his head back and laughed bark-like into the night. Yugi couldn't help but laugh as well.

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Stars blinked down upon the palace corridor. Gods carved out of granite sat against the wall with their various animal heads gazing out through the pillars and down into the great city of Thebes. The night lay still upon the land. Not even a breeze rustled the air.

A pale figure darted around the corner, her long, wavy white hair flying behind her. In the quiet her breath came out in loud gasps, and no one would be surprised if even the stone gods stopped their steady gaze to watch in alarm.

No sooner had the maiden appeared when a dark skin man tore around the corner after her, his exotic, multi-colored hair his most striking characteristic. He wore little more than she did: an off-white, dress-like robe of linen.

"Please! Wait!" he cried. "It's only me, please! For the love of Isis!"

For a moment, it seemed like she had chosen to ignore him. But, reluctantly, she slowed to a halt, her slender, pale legs trembling like a fawn's in the faint glow of the many stars. As the man approached she turned on him. Tears glimmered on her flushed cheeks.

"Don't ask anymore of me. You know I don't belong here."

"You belong with me." he panted, approaching her cautiously. "Please, I love you. Stay, I beg of you."

She hugged herself as though to protect herself from his words. "No. This isn't my time, you know that. I…I don't even know how I came here. Don't ask such from me."

The young man's red-violet eyes sparked with a light she had come to associate with an undefeatable intention. "No, I will ask such from you. Marry me. I will make you my queen—you'll never want for anything."

She snorted, wet and clogged with tears. "Aren't pharaohs suppose to be famous for having many wives and concubines? I couldn't live through that anyways."

"Where in the world did you hear that? Is this something people have concocted from your time? Honestly, why can't you believe me?"

"Because I've seen otherwise." Her expression darkened. The tears on her face had stopped and begun to dry, and she faced him now with a solid determination to match even his. Perhaps, if he challenged her to a Shadow Game, it would be quite a match to behold.

The Pharaoh fell to his knees. This surprised her. And he didn't stop there, but fell to his hands until his forehead practically touched the floor. The pale beauty bit her lip. This wasn't right. This man was made to stand before gods without flinching and now he bowed to her, a mere mortal. Her heart trembled.

"I beg of you with every fiber of my being—_please!_ Stay! You don't have to marry me if you don't want to but don't leave me here alone, without you."

The silence of the night filled in the broken space between them. Her doe like legs were trembling more than ever and she staggered back while lifting a hand to him. Her blue eyes quivered on him prostrated before her on the floor, his millennium puzzle poking out by his shoulder.

Her resolve wavered. But, she shook her head, looking out at the clear, unpolluted sky.

"I'm sorry, Atem," she murmured, "But…I don't belong here…and I can't trust you as much as I would like. Besides, now that I've found a chance to get home, who knows if it will be my last. I don't know what will happen, but I have to try it at least."

He looked up just in time to watch her dash out between pillars, white hair flared behind her like wings, and leap over the edge, eyes to the sky and something shining in the palm of her hand. The stars seemed to flash, drowning the Pharaoh and the many god statues in brilliant light. He called out for her, crying her name until his voice had grown hoarse. Long after the light had died away he still felt blind as tears filled up his eyes. The uncaring gaze of the gods watched as their chosen son crumpled at their feet, his hands racking through his thick, spiky hair.

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Yugi woke up the next day to patters of rain atop their tent. His grandfather cursed on the other side of camp. So much for a three day weekend of camping. The weather forecast had said nothing about rain, but that just goes to prove that luck is luck, and sometimes she wasn't with you. Since it hadn't been forecasted, Tea suggested that the rain would soon stop and that they could probably wait it out in their tents. After several torturous horror stories from Joey (Yugi hated horror stories, though Yami was unfazed by them), and a quiet conversation about the importance of weak monsters in a duel deck with Yami, the rain had yet to stop. In fact, it only increased. Was it just him, or did the river look like it was widening?

He couldn't tell what time in the day it was when his grandfather decided to call it quits.

"Those clouds aren't looking too good," he said, "if this rain grows into the good sized storm its threatening, it won't be safe for us anymore. There could be mudslides, lightning, and who knows what else."

Joey and Tristan were probably the most disappointed. They had planned an intricate war game to play in the forest with air-soft guns. Yugi was disappointed for this too. As they loaded all their goods into the white van, getting muddy and soaked in the process, Yami took his place by Yugi.

"I feel it again. Something is going to happen."

"Good or bad?" asked Yugi, attempting to stuff the tent that was nearly his same size into a small hole in the luggage in the van. Yami wavered hesitantly with his hands over Yugi's before Joey rushed over to save his friend from being squashed.

"I don't know. It could be either. Or, it may just be nothing."

"With you, it's rarely nothing." said Yugi, face flushed and hands on his knees. "Boy, what I wouldn't give to be bigger."

"You'll hit a growth spurt eventually, don't worry, and I guess that comes with being an ancient spirit."

Yugi nodded, dusting off the mud from his hands.

"Well, I just hope it's good. I think I've had enough trouble to last me a lifetime."

Yami gave him a wry smile. "And more."

"Hey Yug, you talking to Yami?"

Yugi cringed. Joey didn't look disturbed, but Yugi was so self-conscious he didn't like looking like a crazy in front of his friends. But he nodded. If he had wanted to, he could speak with Yami inside his mind, but often times he forgot to and fell into speaking out loud.

"Yeah. He says he feels like something's coming."

"Good or bad?"

"We don't know."

"Man, I hope it's good, then. Like stumbling upon a secret garden of hot babes who need a duelist to protect them." Yugi could almost see the drool inching out of Joey's mouth. At that moment, Tea came around, a deep scowl on her face. There were shadows under her eyes.

"Joey, stop it! You have Mai, don't you?"

Joey snapped to attention, instantly apprehensive of the obviously moody young woman. "Well, yeah, but I'm still a guy. Besides, what do you think I'd do if we found some lonely sexy babes who need a protector? Would you just want me to leave them there?"

"Ugh! That's not what I'm saying! You guys don't get anything."

Yugi sensed a fight coming. How unlike Tea. "Um…Tea?"

"_What?_"

He flinched at her biting tone, but pointed to the van. "Grandpa's waiting for us. We should get in before we get wetter."

She gave one last seething glare to Joey before stomping to the other side of the van, where Tristan waited for her on the middle seat. Yugi and Joey had called the backseat this time. Joey turned furrowed brows to Yugi, his blond hair dripping past one of his eyes.

"Man, what's up with her? PMS?"

Yugi shrugged. "Yami thinks she's having love problems. I think it's something else."

"Whatever it is, I hope she gets over it soon. I don't know how much longer I can keep my head with her gnawing it off."

"I heard that!"

Both Yugi and Joey winced.

Being out of the rain and inside the van where the heater pumped warm air onto their chilled selves was glorious. Yugi quickly peeled off his soggy jacket and dug out a blanket from behind the back seat according to Yami's suggestion. The spirit's eyes watched over the others, comforting himself with the knowledge that they were all bundling up. Yugi couldn't help but smile at the pharaoh's protective nature as his grandfather drove the van back out onto the road and down the mountain, though he knew there was another reason for his friend's uneasiness. Anything could be coming.

The trip back took about four hours: three to get down the mountain and out of the valley, and then one more to get through town and back to the shop. Tea took out a book from her backpack and settled down to read, while Joey hung over the back of Tristan's seat to watch his friend play a game on his handheld Nintendo. Yugi was content to watch the trees go by. Yami spoke up besides him.

"I don't want to put any of our friends in danger."

_I know,_ Yugi thought to him. _But you also don't know if it's bad or not._

"True…true." The spirits eyebrows lowered, and he clenched his jaw, looking intently at nothing in general. Yugi frowned.

_What are you thinking about?_

"A strange dream I had last night. Usually, I'm not one for sleeping, and I can't recall any importance to any of my dreams, but this one…was peculiar."

_Why?_

"I'm…not sure. All I can remember are these statues of gods glowing with a great light, watching me as I lay at their feet unable to move."

_Could it be one of your memories?_

"Perhaps, but then we must ask why I would be dreaming of any of my memories. Every speck of my past, including who I truly am, are locked tightly away in my mind. If there is a chance one might have escaped, what could be the purpose of it? What could be happening?"

Yugi was just contemplating a reply when his grandfather suddenly swore loudly and the van jerked to the side. Yugi was thrown into Joey and sleeping bags came tumbling down upon them. He heard Yami shout his name. Tea screamed.

Then all fell still. The van's engine rumbled. Rain pattered on the roof.

"What the hell was that!" said Joey as he kicked his way through sleeping bags. Yugi peeled himself away from his friend as Yami's hands hovered about him, checking him frantically for injuries.

Yugi's grandfather was still swearing every profanity he had taught Yugi to never utter as he threw open the van door, ripped off the seat belt, and slipped out into the storm. All four of them exchanged glances.

"Did you see anything?"

"No, I was playing my game."

"I was reading."

"Yugi?"

"Uh, I wasn't looking ahead. Maybe it was just a dip in the road?"

"Maybe we got a flat tire."

Yami simply clenched his jaw tighter as he briefly checked the others for injuries and then looked outside. Yugi also pressed his face against the window, following the spirit's gaze.

What he saw made him gasp, drawing the rest of his friends to the windows as well.

On the side of the road, tangled within the bramble, was a very small figure with a mass of messy, pale hair. His grandfather was carefully picking his way over to her.

There was a peculiar jolt in Yugi's stomach as he scrambled past Joey to the van door. His friends followed after him, including the pharaoh.

"Aw hell, don't tell me we almost hit a person!" cried Joey as they surrounded Yugi's grandfather. The figure in the brambles was twitching and fighting to get through its mane of long, pale hair. As they watched, two bloody, torn hands parted the hair to show the face of a frightened, beautiful girl.

Yugi felt his stomach lurch.

She wore little more than a thin, linen dress that had turned somewhat transparent in the rain. Yugi could feel his face heat up as he noticed just the extent to this transparency and turned his face away, but not before he saw the many scratches and scrapes lining her slender, delicate arms and legs. Blood trickled in a thin stream down her face.

"Aw man…gramps, don't tell me we hit her!"

"Very nearly did. She ran right in front of us. It's a miracle." Yugi watched his grandfather's face move into a deep scowl. "Girl, what were you thinking? What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere anyways?"

Yugi's eyes were drawn back to her face to the wide, almond shaped blue eyes blink in answer.

"Are you hurt?"

"Do you live around here? Can we help you?"

"What happened to your shoes?"

The girl didn't say a word in response to any of them, but merely stared, like a deer caught in the head-lights.

"I think she's in shock." said Joey.

Tea crouched down near her leg, which twitched in the brambles away from her. "I think we should get her to a hospital. She doesn't look too good. I have a first-aid kit in my backpack we can patch her up with until we get there. Did you say we were about three hours away still?"

Yugi's grandpa nodded. Yugi himself was still carefully avoiding his eyes away from the pale legs showing through her transparent dress. When Joey gave a low whistle he moved to punch him—hard—but then Joey made a comment on her ankle, which he noticed was swollen and mangled. Yugi felt his insides twist at the sight of blood and the pale, bluish little foot attached to it. His friends leaned forward to help her out of the bushes, but she retreated from them, drawing deeper into the brambles. Joey and Tristan exchanged glances.

"Come on, we're not going to hurt you. We just want to help."

But she only pushed herself back further, wincing as her injured ankle was jostled and more branches scratched her skin. Yugi felt himself wince with her and found himself pushing through his friends, hands outstretched.

"Please, let us help you."

The girl froze in her attempts at the sight of him. She looked hesitantly on his hands. When she didn't show more signs of retreating, Yugi took another step forward into the branches, feeling the sharp twigs dig into his pants.

"We only want to help. Promise."

And than he was next to her. Still, she hesitated, seeming to size Yugi up. Behind him, Joey and Tristan held in their breaths and Tea bit her lip.

"You don't think she was…raped or something like that, do you?" Yugi heard her whisper to his grandfather. "She is acting rather strange."

Yugi held out his hands to her. Cautiously, she tugged her small, torn hands from the bushes and took his. He flinched at their ice-like touch. _She's freezing._

As he pulled her to her feet, Joey caught her before her injured ankle gave way and Tristan jumped to her other side. Yami appeared besides Yugi as they helped her across the street and into the white van, which she also eyed with unease.

"Do you think this might be what you were sensing?" asked Yugi. Yami frowned, a hand to his chin.

"Yes," he said cautiously, "but whether she is harmless or not…"

Yugi rolled his eyes. "Come on, does she look like she could hurt anything right now?"

Yami said nothing, his eyes never leaving the matted, wet, and bleeding girl as the boys carefully eased her into the seat next to Tea, who had her first-aid kit out and ready. Yugi's grandfather slid back into the driver's seat and closed the door. Rain pattered harder than ever on the roof of the van. Somewhere in the distance, thunder rumbled.

"What are you staring at, Yugi? Get in!"

Giving one last glance to Yami he slid into the van and slammed the door shut.


	2. The Memories Left Behind

**Wow, re-reading over this chapter makes me embarassed. X.X So hokey. But my goal is to finish this story for you guys first before I start messing too much with it, so excuse me.**

**Pika, ya'all**

Chapter 2: The Memories Left Behind

Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corporation, billionaire entrepreneur and software genius extraordinaire, was having one of those days.

"What do you mean you don't know why the satellite system has crashed? I pay you to know all that goes in and out of the mainframe system and you're telling me that you _don't know_?"

The voice on the other side of his cell-phone came out reedy and pathetic against his ear. Mokuba huddled on the sofa in his office, fingers taping wildly on his own laptop as he tried to reboot the network and internet himself. Outside, rain came down in torrents and a great flash of lightening forked across the city. Thunder followed it like a giant moving barrels in the clouds. Whatever excuse the man gave him over the phone turned out to be insufficient and Seto growled into the mouthpiece.

"That better be true, because if you can't find the meaning to this in less than ten minutes you can say good-bye to your desk and say hello to unemployment."

His older brother clicked the slender phone off so hard, Mokuba briefly feared that he'd snap it in two. Muttering angrily to himself Seto threw himself into his chair. His fingers raked through his thick hair.

"Idiots. I'm surrounded by idiots!"

"Seto, it could just be a power outage."

"A power outage that only takes out networks and internet? I think not. This smells of sabotage and when I get my hands on them—" he left it at that, his anger beginning to reach the level of incoherency.

His younger brother tugged at his middle finger uncertainly. What if it was sabotage? Again? The thought made him wonder if his brother's rage was infectious as he felt heat rise up to his face. Why couldn't they just leave his brother alone? It was he who had worked hard to get Kaiba Corp as far as it was today, and if they were so butthurt about being losers it was only because they were stupider and lazier and they didn't deserve anything greater than his brother's shoelaces. He found himself repeating under his breath, "Idiots. They really are all idiots."

Although, five minutes later, the internet suddenly reappeared and Mokuba could hear the quite revving of the mainframe computers a floor below them. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Seto instantly snatched up the phone to call the manger.

"Well?"

He listened quietly, his rage held only in check by a thin barrier. Mokuba could practically feel the bubbling just beneath the surface of his brother's calm—or at least calm-ish- face. Seto glowered at the wall.

"What do you mean you still don't know what happened? Did they just start up on their own?"

Mokuba frowned as well. Maybe it was just a freak power outage after all. Maybe a solar wave?

By the time Seto ended the call, four people had been fired, three had been promoted, and his mood had just gone from worse to hellish. He bared his teeth as he jumped to his feet and shoved his hands into his pockets to stop himself from breaking the nearest thing to him.

"Mokuba, let's go. Empty-headed morons."

This made Mokuba beam. Rarely did his brother get pushed to the edge of fleeing Kaiba Corp, but when it did happen it usually meant ice cream—or hot chocolate, considering the rainy weather outside- and a day back home. He snapped his laptop shut and bounded off the sofa.

"Do you still think it was someone outside messing with the system?"

"Of course. What else could it be?"

The young boy didn't know.

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Pale, small, and white, she shivered madly on Yugi's couch, wearing a baggy set of Yugi's pajamas and huddled within a cocoon of quilts. Bandages covered her arms and legs, especially around her torn and twisted right ankle and her head, where a deep cut had been pouring blood earlier. Yugi's grandfather had attempted to convince her to go to the hospital, but when she had a soundless panic attack at the sight of the building they had no choice but to take her back home. There, his grandfather had used every ounce of his medical knowledge gained from his days as an outback archeologist to disinfect and care for her ankle, which he found to have, blessedly, no broken bones.

Yugi sat at her feet now, concerned over the way her blue lips had yet to regain their color. Yami sat with him, eyeing her as well. After Tea had helped her out of her soggy wet dress and into some of Yugi's clothes, her and the boys had left for home for the night at the older man's insistence.

"I can't have you three catching a cold now, eh? You're soaked!" he had said. "Go home and get some good sleep. You can get your camping gear tomorrow."

So now here he was alone (at least, alone besides Yami), with the girl who had yet to make a sound. She watched him as well, blue eyes weary with fear. What was she so afraid of? She looked to be around his age. Could Tea's suspicions be true and something horrible had happened to her in the forest? Yugi didn't want to think about it.

Then her eyes flickered to the spirit of the puzzel for the fourth time that night. Yugi perked.

"What are you looking at?"

But still, she said nothing. Was it possible that she could see the spirit sitting next to him?

"Here we are. This should warm you right up."

Yugi's grandfather appeared by the couch, holding cups of tea on a tray. He handed one to the girl on the couch, who, as always, hesitated, wary of all. In the end, she accepted the cup, sniffing it carefully before taking a careful sip. Yugi accepted his own cup gladly.

"So…um…can you speak?"

Her eyes blinked at him in response, her bluish lips parted slightly. Yami's expression darkened ever so slightly.

"How are we going to find her family if she can't speak?" he said.

"Can you write?" asked Yugi.

Again, she just blinked, except this time she frowned, which on her carefully carved lips turned into a cute sort of pout. Yugi felt a strange warmth in his chest unconnected to the tea he was sipping. Her white hair had been brushed out by Tea, but it still filled out around her head in a wavy, curly mass that reached the middle of her back, and Yugi felt the sudden urge to touch it. He clenched his hands.

A faint hiss came from the kitchen and his grandfather jumped.

"That must be the soup! Excuse me."

And he jostled his way back to the kitchen. Yugi was once more alone with her and her great, deep blue eyes. He fought down the need to squirm.

"Um…" what should he say? Did she even understand what he was saying?

"Yugi, allow me?" asked Yami, finally turning his sharp gaze to him. Yugi nodded and the millennium puzzle shivered and glowed about his chest. When the glow died down, Yami looked out from his eyes, his mind melded into one with Yugi's.

"What should we call you by? Do you know how to write? You can just nod or shake your head. Please, we want to help you."

The girl had flinched horribly when the millennium puzzle had activated, but now she stared at Yami with an intensity Yugi had yet to see. She frowned even more deeply, nearly dissipating her pout.

"Please." said Yami once more, meeting the intensity of her gaze.

Then, to both their surprise, her lips parted and her face softened.

"I.." she croaked. "I don't know."

Both Yami and Yugi leapt in excitement.

"So you can speak!"

"Y-yes?" she looked nearly as surprised as they did.

"Then can you tell us your name? At least your name."

Her voice was soft and as hesitant as all her actions. Yugi had to lean in to hear. "Like I said, I don't know. I don't know…"

A gleam of panic came to her face before she shook herself of it and met Yugi's eye once more.

"W-where am I?"

"Domino City. Do you know where that is?"

The panic in her face fought to return. She clenched her cup and didn't respond as Yugi's grandfather returned with a bowl of soup for both of them. He smiled down warmly at her and her panic seemed to ease slightly.

"I heard a little voice from the kitchen. Was that you?" he asked kindly.

She nodded. His grandfather beamed.

"That's good! Could you possibly tell us where we might take you home, little miss?"

Yugi shook his head. "She can't remember her name. I think there's more to this than we think. It seems like she just now remembered that she could talk."

To this, his grandfather's thick eyebrows lowered dangerously.

"You aren't kidding me?"

Yugi shook his head solemnly. The girl on the couch began to tremble.

"I-I-I'm sorry." She squeaked. "I know I'm suppose to know, you probably need to get rid of me, I'm so sorry—" Hot soup was splashing on her hands. Yugi leaned forward, putting a hand on hers in attempts to calm her before she scalded herself.

"It's fine. We don't mind at all."

"And if you're willing to help out with the shop, you can stay as long as you need to." said his grandfather, his voice warm. Yugi had the sneaky suspicion that his grandfather had become just as taken as he was by her vulnerability.

"Shop? So all those shelves downstairs—you live over a shop?"

Both of them nodded. "And you know our names by now, right?"

She paused, eyebrows narrowed. "Yugi Moto, right? Except..." she turned to his grandfather. "I don't know your name. Everyone just refers to you as grandpa."

"Which is all good and well, seeing as that is what I am. My name is Soloman, but if it's easier for you, just call me grandpa as everyone else does."

She smiled softly, her lips warming to a soft, pink glow from the soup and tea. "Thank you. I…I will do my best."

Yugi thought his heart might burst.

That night, as he laid curled up in his bed, he listened to the thunder rolling outside.

"This storm is very strange," he said out loud. "I mean, the forecast said it was suppose to be clear skies for the rest of the week. They would've noticed a storm this big coming, wouldn't they?"

Yami phased into being besides him, leaning his head back on his arms.

"Indeed. I can't help shake the feeling that it has something to do with that girl."

The girl in question was curled up on a nest of blankets on the couch in the living room. Yugi felt that squirming sensation in his stomach again and turned onto his side, away from Yami.

"Maybe."

"Yugi?"

But Yugi's thoughts were drawn elsewhere, remembering when the girl had shifted her leg at some point and he spied a strange, greenish ring, as though there had once been some cheap jewelry around her uninjured ankle.

! #$#^%$&565254315236$%&%$&^^$#

The great hall of the Thebes Palace looked as it did in legends. Streams upon streams of colorful cloth draped down from the ceiling, showing off the riches and splendor of Egypt. Golden plates full of exotic foods lined the low tables. Scattered through the crowds weaved exotic dancers, silk running through the air about them like water and wrapping about each of their sweet, round breasts. Ageless faces of the gods watched the party goers mingle beneath them from their high vaulted ceiling, and on a marble and gold throne sat the Pharaoh himself watching with them.

He grinned and nodded his approval, fingering the golden pyramid hanging from his neck. Its leather string was hidden beneath the intricate, thick beaded necklace reaching out to his shoulders. An eye of Horus gleamed in the firelight.

"Very, very well done, Set. Where did you get so much cloth? And those strange knots they make along the pillars, where did you get that idea from?"

The man who he was speaking to, a tall, grey eyed Egyptian, inclined his head to the Pharaoh gratefully. Tucked into the crock of his arm sparkled a golden rod with an identical eye of Horus to his pyramid.

"The Greeks, oh great one. They depict their gods living in what appeared to me as swathes of cloth, and it fascinated me."

"Huh," the Pharaoh looked back to the gathering before him. "The Greeks are certainly interesting people. I hope you did not go to such lengths as importing cloth from the Greeks themselves to achieve your aspirations."

The tall Egyptian chuckled. "Of course not, your grace. You know of my frugality."

"I was being sarcastic. On sale then?"

"Surely not! They were on clearance, bottom of the basket."

A laugh bubbled to his lips. Set, one of his closest advisors and friend, smiled in satisfaction. No sooner had the king's chuckles died down when a stout, stocky man herded the crowds aside, calling out in his booming voice:

"Make way! Make way for the Magicians of Hanou!"

"Magicians of…what?"

"Hanou, your grace," said Set, "they were a last minute addition, since the, um, firebellies lost their lead dancer to his own foolishness."

Atem frowned. He knew that tone. "Don't tell me—"

"Yes."

The frown turned into a deep, disapproving scowl. "Idiots. Shadow games are not to be taken so lightly. It was probably over something inane like sheep or lentils."

"Clearly, sire." As the clear space in the middle of the great hall grew, Set gestured to the steps coming down from the Pharaoh's throne. "May I…?"

"Oh! Yes, of course. You more than deserve it for all your hard work."

Set couldn't have looked more pleased. He nestled himself besides the flat stone of his monarchs throne, smoky grey eyes sharp upon the opening doors.

They came in a whirl of purple smoke. When the smoke cleared, three men stood in the middle of the hall drawing gasps from the audience. Each wore long braids down to their hips, and their hair and skin were the color of dark earth. The Pharaoh whistled.

"Nubian? You brought magicians from that wasteland in the south? Set, you old hound."

The advisor merely bobbed his head. "Only the best for your highness's birthday."

The middle and foremost of the magicians stepped forward, sweeping his rich robes around him as he spoke. The robes themselves fascinated Atem as they were dyed in patches of every color imaginable and the affect was quite mesmerizing.

"People of the Great Land of Egypt! We come before you today to bring great and mysterious powers before your eyes. You will be befuddled, amazed, and perhaps even…frightened. But never fear! It is only for your entertainment! Please, relax, my friends! And enjoy."

A keening horn sung out from the corner, sending chills up the Pharaoh's spine. All three magicians stepped about in a circle, coats swishing in swirls of dizzying color. One brought out a sword, while the other a length of silk. They pranced towards one another, watched over by the third who began wailing out a strange, almost humorous chant. The Pharaoh smiled down at his friend.

"Let's not hope you get us cursed by your choice in entertainment."

Set snorted. "Please, I know magic when I see it." Then, quickly realizing the impropriety of his tone, tacked on a "your greatness," to the end.

Atem didn't answer, brought back to the magicians as the silk the one man was holding burst into flame, making his dark skin shine like bronze in its light. He swung it about his body, but the licking flames appeared harmless. As one, the two magicians swung their weapons around, one the great scimitar and the other the decaying snake of burning silk, and brought them clashing together. There came a great clang and suddenly the silk was hard as iron. The fire died and a long wooden pole lined with glimmering glass was revealed. The third magician brought more silk from his sleeves as the other two danced with each other, clashing glass staff upon gleaming, silver scimitar. Each hit scattered glass about the floor, but even as Atem watched the glass melted and vanished into the stone. He nodded, leaning back into his throne.

"Nice. I wonder how they managed that."

"What, your highness?"

"Ice. That man's staff is made of ice. Forget about how he pulled an ice staff from a flaming scarf, how did he get ice in the first place?"

Set frowned at the Pharaoh, a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.

"My Pharaoh, these men are doing mere illusionary play, you can't depend on your eyes."

Atem ignored him, his attention once more to the magicians.

As the two men came for an almighty clash and the keening desert horn lifted up to a climatic wail, an immense flash, like lightning, suddenly filled the room, momentarily blinding the watchers. The young king brought an arm to his face.

_What in the name of…_

Just as soon as it had come the flash vanished. In the middle of the floor with her pale legs sprawled about her and surrounded by chips of ice, a maiden sat, wearing a strange, blue girdled kilt and a bright yellow top. Straps of a rucksack (the likes of he had never seen), wrapped over her shoulders and under her arms. From Atem's distance her most noticeable feature was her peculiar, wavy white hair framing her tiny torso and pale face. He moved to clap with the rest of the nobles.

Set, however, jumped to his feet. The Pharaoh froze.

The magicians looked alarmed at the presence of the girl. She looked around hesitantly as they rapidly babbled to each other in their own language. Slowly, her eyes moved up and met the Pharaoh's gaze, wide and devoid of shame.

Atem ground his teeth. How dare she disrespect him with such forwardness?

"Set, what is the meaning of this?"

Set had to scramble for words to explain, as though he too were just as confused as the magicians of Hanou. "Magic, your highness. I sensed it, a greater surge than I ever have before. That girl isn't of the magicians' work."

"Ay…I think I felt it too."

"Allow me?"

Atem nodded, his eyes never once leaving the strange, pale figure on the floor. Was she a ka from the afterlife? A messenger? Or perhaps something even a spy?

The magicians scattered to the side as Set approached the girl sitting on the polished floor. He towered over her, and the crowd of nobles held their breath.

"What is the meaning of this? Who are you?"

She simply blinked at him, uncomprehending. Once more she looked past him at the Pharaoh. Set growled and even went as far as to grab her white head and turn it to him.

"Do not dare to grace the High One with your unworthy stare. Answer my questions."

Atem saw her lips move, but at his distance he couldn't hear a thing.

"What?" asked Set.

She spoke again, this time louder, but the words never carried over to him. A strange sensation tingled at the back of his spine, and he felt odd. There was something about this girl, something… Set turned to Atem.

"She appears not to speak our tongue, your grace. Shall I force her mind?" Set raised the golden rod till it's all-seeing eye was level with her eyes. The girl gave a small squeak.

"No." Atem stood. Rows of Egyptian heads bowed as he stepped from the dais and onto the floor of the Great Hall. He could feel the anticipation tingling in the air as he approached. Not even a breath broke the silence, and he could hear his sandals slapping against the stone floors. The closer he got the more he noticed her slight figure and pale skin. One would think her Greecian, though he had never seen the likes of her white-blond hair. Against his counselor's wishes she looked up at him when he came to her. They were light blue and large like doe-eyes. Atem paused, taken aback. What strange eyes!

Up close he could also see how violently she shook. She had to be terrified. Just recognizing this made him soften and he touched the large pyramid around his neck that few knew the true nature of. Through this particular pendent there flowed a magic for unity that his father had mused was the true source of Egypt's greatness. It was of a unique branch of mind magic. Hopefully, he could understand whatever tongue she spoke by listening to her mind through it. He reached for it in his mind's eye and clenched it in his hand. He tried not to think how much better fit Set was for this task, being the most accomplished magician in his court.

"Speak." he said.

She gaped at him for a moment, her mouth fumbling for words.

"I-I-I don't know w-what's going on. Where am I? What was he saying? Please, I don't understand." Her lips trembled so hard her words came out like falling rocks. "Please, I was just going through a tour of the Egyptian ruins and got bored and-and there was this weird…and then this flash—"

"Ruins?" he asked.

The girl leapt on his word. "So you do speak English! Oh, that's wonderful. Please, tell me, how do I get out of here and back to my group? They're going to be really worried about me—not that your…whatever you're doing here isn't awesome or anything, but I get the feeling I came at a really bad time, so if you don't mind—"

"Chatterer, isn't she?" muttered Set, and Atem knew he hadn't caught a word of what she had said. It was a remarkable feat for even the Pharaoh to understand her, for he had only ever used the medallion under the direction of his father, and even then only on Nubian slaves. But though Atem could comprehend her speech in his mind, deciphering what language she spoke was another story. He cleared his throat and she stopped abruptly, doe-like eyes wide once more.

"Where are you from?" he said slowly, clinging harder to the medallion as his mind strained.

"South Dakota?"

The Pharaoh blinked. "Excuse me?"

Set cleared his throat and jerked his chin to the staring crowds about them. Atem nodded and gestured some guards over.

"Take her to the palace prisons and tie her down, but don't hurt her. Make it reasonably comfortable. I will come later for questioning."

The guards nodded and reached down. The girl flinched horribly at their touch and, for a moment, he feared her legs would give way beneath her and his men would be forced to carry her the rest of the way. But they withstood. She babbled indistinctly until the guards forced her away, dragging her heels down the hall and through the doors. The Pharaoh looked to Set for affirmation of his thoughts before turning back to his throne.

"By all means, continue."

And the magicians sheepishly inched back to their places with one holding the broken, melted remains of a staff.

"Ah, so it was ice." said Set.

"Like I said…"

And the two returned to their previous places on the throne with the young Pharaoh's attention distracted for the rest of the evening's festivities.


	3. First Memory

**Graduating college, graduating college...oh gosh, now I'll be a real big person now. X.X What's it like to not have to go to school anymore? Will I have to be boring? Get fat? Watch reality TV? **

**Well, review. Let me know what you think. Maybe I can just be a writer and play forever in my mind. That's mature. **

Chapter 3: The First Memory

Yugi woke up to Yami's voice in his mind.

'Wake up. Slowly now, you don't want to startle her."

_Startle her?_ He opened his eyes. At first, all he could make out was a mass of nearly white blond hair, but his heart had already picked up in speed. Curled up against his chest, with her legs lying longer than his own on his bed, she slept with her small breaths making soft puffing sounds against his neck. Warm breath bounced off his collarbone into his face. It smelt of something sweet and feminine.

Yugi thought he might die.

_There's a girl in my bed, there's a girl in my bed, there's a girl in my _bed! His face felt like its own sun—and it wasn't just any girl. It was a hot, cute girl all curled up to him like a small child hoping for comfort from a bad dream. He felt the heat spread from his face to the rest of his body.

Yami's voice spoke calmly within him.

'Yugi, don't freak out.'

'_There's a girl in my bed—'_

'Yugi—'

'_What is she doing in my bed!?_'

'Forget that, look up.'

Wondering what in the world could possibly make him forget the sleeping girl against his chest, he looked up, and his jaw dropped.

Where his computer once stood was a dripping staff of ice.

"What the…"

And just as quickly as he had seen it, he blinked and the staff was gone, leaving once more his innocent and somewhat dusty computer in its place.

"What the-!"

'Shh, quiet!' hissed Yami.

Too late. Yugi could hear the little puffs of her breath change as she shifted slightly. As her pale eyelashes quivered and rose, Yugi about lost it. He wasn't sure why her waking up made him panic so. Maybe it was because he would be at such a loss of what to do once those big blue eyes were looking up at him.

Yami wasn't helping.

'Calm down. It will only be a big deal if you make it so.'

The world seemed to stop turning as she pulled her head back enough to blink at his chest.

_I must be dreaming._ Yugi thought. _A girl in my bed, my computer turning into a weird melting staff and then back again—it just has to be—_

'Yugi…' said the exasperated voice of the spirit.

And there were those blue eyes looking up at him as he had feared.

_Oh my…_

"Uh…um…good m-morning?" he squeaked. Man, why did his voice have to squeak like that? How unmanly could you get! Wasn't it enough that he was short enough to pass for a grade student?

It only took her a second to register his presence. Then she pushed herself onto the floor, fingers to her mouth to withholding the quiet gasp of pain as her bruises and scrapes protested.

"I am so sorry! I couldn't sleep and, well, I don't know what came over me—"

Yugi glanced at his computer so he wouldn't have to face the awkwardness of looking at her. It didn't shift or move in any way.

"It's fine! Really." he said. "Just, whatever you do, don't let my grandpa hear of this. And be careful not to jostle your ankle too much."

'Yugi' said Yami, attempting to draw his attention back. 'That staff—'

'I was just dreaming, Yami.'

'No, you were not.'

Over this, she was speaking. "I swear, I won't tell him! I'm so sorry!"

But then the worst happened: Soloman Moto walked through the door.

"Good morn—" he paused, taking in the young'ns in the room. Yugi sat half nestled in blankets while the white girl was sprawled on the floor, clutching her shins. The old man frowned.

"It's not what it looks like!" cried Yugi frantically.

His grandfather blinked. "Looks like what?"

"Oh, uh…nothing."

The old man took one more look at them before chuckling. Yugi's face had yet to cool and he could feel something akin to an eye-roll from inside the puzzle.

"I only came up to say that Tea is waiting for you downstairs. She wanted to check up on our visitor here."

Looking down at the white girl, Yugi noticed she was blushing as well. It made him feel slightly better, for some reason.

"Tell her we'll be down in a minute."

The girl left with his grandfather and Yugi quickly got dressed, trying to ignore the prompts from the spirit to consider what had just happened. He was too busy trying to get the memory of how warm and…girly she had felt lying next to him like that. It wouldn't do any good to linger on it. He was, after all, below the acceptable dating height.

Yami eventually got annoyed enough to appear to Yugi outside of the millennium puzzle.

"Yugi, she's just a girl. Please focus. There is something strange going on about her. Look outside."

He did. It was raining. Pouring, even.

"Still?" he asked.

"Apparently so, despite the forecast of sunshine for the next ten days. And then that staff…."

"Well, what do you suppose we do then?"

"I'm merely concerned that you'll get too distracted by a cute face to see signs. We need both our attention on this. I think she was what I was sensing the other night."

Yugi was blushing again. He averted his face as he pulled on his duel deck and dug out a coat from the closet. Downstairs he found Tea deep in an interrogation session with the white girl, who was looking more and more uncomfortable by the second.

She looked up as Yugi entered and instantly became hesitant.

"Ah, Yugi. I, um, can I talk to you?"

"Sure. That, uh, is why you came here, isn't it?"

"Yeah. If it isn't too weird, can we talk outside?"

Inwardly, he sent a raised eyebrow to Yami. Unbeknownst to them, the white girl slipped away and towards the good smell in the kitchen.

Next to the tin garbage bin Tea turned to him, clutching her hands before her so hard he could see her fingertips turn white. A thought crossed his mind that this may very well have to do with her strange behavior at the camping trip. Was she about to reveal it to him? Confide in him? He steadied himself to be ready, excited that he could finally do something about it.

She bit her lip and looked at her shoes.

"Um…is it possible to talk to Yami? The Pharaoh, I mean."

Needless to say, there was a distinct drop inside him. He felt Yami stir and prod him in concern.

'_Abiou?'_

_ 'I'm fine. Um…Tea wants to speak with you.'_

_ 'What about?'_

_ 'I don't know, but I think it's about what she was upset about on the camping trip.'_

Yugi's momentary silence to talk to Yami had made Tea visibly uncomfortable. She kept pulling on the ends of her skirt, which Yugi noticed was shorter than her usual.

Yami was snorting.

_'I guess that proves my theory correct.'_

This annoyed Yugi for some reason. His disappointment in Tea not wanting to confide in him had been enough to put him on edge. Putting his hands around his puzzle, he closed his eyes and, ready or not, Yami was pulled out and into his body, and Yugi curled up in his soul room to listen.

Tea flinched when sharp eyes and a slightly taller man gazed out on her. Her cheeks instantly reddened, making Yami smirk.

"You wanted to speak with me?"

"Uh, y-yeah. I, um, was wondering if you—oh gosh this is not working out as well as it had in my head." she clenched her hands tighter. Yugi wondered how much more her fingers could take.

"Tea, there is no need for you to be nervous. I am your friend. You can tell me anything." Yami hesitated. "Yugi and I have noticed you've been distracted of late. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, everything is fine, I've just been…getting the nerve to talk to you about…something."

"I'm listening."

"Well, I was wondering, if…you'd be willing to go on a date with me? I, well, for a while I've really admired you, and I really, really like you." her face was scarlet. It was very strange for Yugi to view Tea no overflowing with confidence as usual, even through a dim window in his soul room. A warm, uncomfortable pressure was squirming beneath his lungs. So Yami was right…but what was he expecting? That Tea would like him? When had he ever thought that? He had always known every girl was out of his league, friend or not. Being the shrimp of the century does that to you.

He turned away from the window in his ceiling and curled up in his bed. It smelled comforting, like fresh laundry mixed with that indefinable musk of home.

"I understand if you don't feel the same way," said Tea, "but a date can't hurt, right? Maybe it would work out."

"Tea," said Yami, the moment she took a breath, "have you thought this through?"

"Huh? Of course."

"No, you haven't. I'm _dead_. This is _Yugi's_ body. Tell me, did you really expect me to take advantage of his body just so I can date you? What would happen to him?"

There was a very awkward, very pregnant pause. Yugi had frozen on his bed at these words and felt a rock forming in his throat. Yami…always thinking of him.

The usually bubbly girl who was always sure of every word she said, started to blabber.

"I didn't think—I-I didn't mean it that way—of course, I would never do that to Yugi—"

"Of course you wouldn't." Yami bowed his head apologetically. "Shall we forget this ever happened and move on with our day?"

Yugi turned around anxiously. Tea had her head bowed and her hair had swung forward to hide her expression. He reached out to feel for Yami's emotions and found them cool, collect, but rather annoyed. He hoped that wasn't showing on his face. This was hard enough for Tea as it was.

Tea's head dropped an inch. "At least answer me this, then."

"Yes?"

She peered out through her hair. "Do you have…any feelings for me?"

Yami blinked, and that was all. "No. I only feel friendship for you."

At this, Yugi knew Tea was a just a breath away from crying.

_'Switch with me. Please.'_

His other half did so without a complaint. Finding himself squished into his body once more was disorienting, but he instantly reached out his hands for Tea.

"Tea! Are you okay?"

She looked up. Sure enough, there were tears pouring down her face. Inwardly, he send a disapproving wave to Yami, who responded in turn with annoyed nonchalance. According to Yami, Tea had been thoughtless and careless to his Abiou in even thinking of making such a request of him. Yugi also sensed that it also frustrated the Pharaoh, in some way, to be reminded of his deathly state.

Yugi scrambled for words to comfort her.

"It's going to be all right." and feigning that he hadn't heard the whole thing, thinking it would make it easier, he said, "Did Yami upset you? What did he say?"

"Nothing." she said. "I…I think I'll go home now."

"Oh. All right. If that's what you need right now. Just know I'm here if you need anything, kay? Just to talk or for ice cream or…whatever."

She gave him a small, watery smile. "Oh, Yugi, you'd make the perfect gay friend, you know that?"

He didn't know what to say to that. He heard Yami growl, however.

'_Why is that girl being so thoughtless of late?'_

Yugi ignored him. He might as well be gay. "Not sure what to say to that." he said, trying to smile as though at a joke.

"I guess I'll see you around." Then a thought seemed to strike her and she hurriedly whipped off the tears from her face. "One last thing. We need to find out that girls name. I did a missing children search for her last night and found no one. Even if she was in her twenties I should have at least found something about her missing, but nothing. No petite, white-haired, blue-eyed girls."

"Yeah. We think there's something up too. I think," but then he changed his mind. The ice staff this morning in his room could have been anything. "Get lots of rest, Tea. I'll work on helping her to remember something."

"I will. Thanks, Yugi. And…I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I'm just…sorry. I don't really want to explain."

"Oh…okay then."

And with that, she turned and practically fled.

Yugi didn't go back inside. Instead he called out Yami with a disapproving frown.

"Did you have to be so harsh?" he snapped.

"Why are you questioning the way I do my personal matters?"

"Because she's my friend!"

"And I was just reminding her of that."

"But, Yami—"

"How would you have preferred I responded, abiou?"

This threw him off, and Yugi gaped at him for a moment.

"Just said no!" he spluttered. "Why did you have to lecture her like that?"

Yami gave him one of his 'looks.' The one's he usually reserved for pitiful enemies he was trying to get through to. "Do you want your friend to continue to skim over your well-being?"

"But—uh, well, no."

"Then I've made my point."

"But, kah, she's crying!"

"As Joey says, 'she will live.'"

Sensing his defeat, he allowed Yami to slink away into the millennium puzzle as he opened the game shop in frustration.

Inside he found his grandfather explaining how to use the till to the rather self-conscious pale girl. They looked up as he came in.

"Where's Tea?" his grandfather asked.

"She went home." he said, restraining a sigh.

The white-haired girl said nothing, though she gave him a curious look before poking at the till. It made a loud chime and the door shot open, making her jump.

And then, suddenly, there were a set of manacles, chain and everything. The till was gone.

Solomon shouted. Yugi did plenty of staring, and Yami appeared out of the puzzle at all the commotion.

The girl, however, picked them up. She fingered the muggy colored metal.

"My…my till." chocked Soloman.

Yugi numbly took the chains from her. "I think they're made out of brass. They look very used, though."

"Brass…" she whispered.

Then, suddenly, there was a till again. Yugi staggered underneath the sudden weight. His grandfather cried out, but didn't reach him in time for Yugi to collapse in an explosion of paper bills and coins.

Yami, for once, didn't have his eyes on Yugi. He was staring at the nameless girl, who had looked up and met his gaze head on. Her lips curved into a confused frown.

"My…name?" she asked, as though thinking he knew.

And somehow, miraculously and wondrously, he did.

"Aleah?"

_! #$# $^%^(*&^%$# $%^&*(^%$#_

The Pharaoh didn't know what to think of the pale girl shuffling about his chamber with her white head bowed. She made not a sound except for the crackle of the brass chains against the floor as she carefully polished ornaments, walls, floors, and organized the large bed. Now and then his eyes would fall on the bandages wrapped about her arms and legs and he'd grimace. Perhaps it hadn't been such a good idea to send her to the servant quarters with the rest of the slaves. While slaves were well treated in the palace comparatively to the rest of the world, the overseers and masters were far from forgiving when one didn't follow or snap to their orders quickly enough. But it was only because she couldn't understand Egyptian. And with that thought, Atem tried to force down a twinge of guilt. So far he had failed to find another of her tongue. That left only him that could understand her, and in turn, her him.

Thus, here she was, his personal slave as shown by the brass cuffs and following chains about her ankles. For the past week she had yet to speak a word to him, and the king almost feared her voice had been beaten out of her completely by the whips and fists. Or even worse, it could be her hate towards him that stopped her mouth. Somehow, that bothered him more.

"Your name is Aleah, correct?" He oddly loved saying the name because of the feel the foreign consonants had on his tongue.

She picked up her head from the side of his white, linen sheets to give him a baleful stare. Such blue eyes, lighter and brighter than Set's ever could be…he shifted uneasily.

"Why do you still refuse to speak to me? Have you forgotten your words in such a short time?"

In answer, she looked back down at his pillows, rearranging them perfectly for the third time. He didn't know how long he could take this.

"Aleah, come here."

Dutifully, she left the pristine bed and shuffled towards him, threatening to trip over her chains more than once before kneeling at his feet. She took her face to the smooth, granite floor. It made his stomach sink even more.

"No…no, please rise. I just wanted to talk to you."

She rose. But her eyes were empty and emotionless as they stared unseeingly at his chest. He dared to touch her face and lift it to him, but she refused to meet his eyes. What if she did hate him? Well, so what? Perhaps she sought an apology—something he could not give. But what should he say to draw out her words? What had happened to make her so still and cold?

Looking at her strange, exotic blue eyes and her peculiar thick mane of platinum blond hair, her words on that first night rang through his head:

_'I must have gone to the ancient past. But this can't be real, this place just can't be real! How did I get here?'_

Could it be possible that she was telling the truth? Set and Isis had both sworn to her honesty, having tested the waters of her mind with their millennium items, but still he could not grasp it. In fact, he had been so bemused and enraged by her determination to tell him such ridiculous lies that he had thrown her to the side as a servant to be dealt with by others. He figured that her language was of some Grecian dialect and had presumed someone would eventually understand her. But, even if she were from a land so foreign she wouldn't know of Egypt, adaptation to another language and culture would be hard. Forget about the future. And then he realized just as solidly as when she had accidentally fled into his chambers, bleeding, torn and scared for her life, just how alone she really was.

Pressing his lips tight and furrowing his brow, he reached within his belt and took out a small, brass key. Her eyes didn't even flicker to it, such was her defeated state. She flinched as his fingers touched along her ankle and put the key to the cuff.

_Click. _

Then, very carefully, he took the key to the other cuff, his eyes watching her intently. Her face had pinken slightly from the sun, and yet her face somehow reminded him of the moon, with round cheeks and a petite mouth like an orchid. Did he know what he was doing, unlocking her chains? Would he regret this?

Hardening his resolved, he found the other cuff and unlocked it as well. Click. He gently felt the blistering skin that had been beneath it. She was so fragile, with her skin so easily wounded.

He pulled the brass chains to the side."There, that should make it easier for you."

As he straightened, her eyes found his, questioning, wary, and suspicious.

"Now, should you decide to run—"

"I won't."

In a flash there was fire in her eyes that he had never expected. He almost flinched at the intensity in which she stared him down, suddenly defiant and enraged as though the unlocking of her chains unleashed her words.

"Why do you say that so quickly?"

"Don't get me wrong, Pharaoh, I want to, but at this rate, with how much I know, running would only mean death for me." Her eyes, so blue, seemed so much like ice right then. "What will you take to give me lessons in Egyptian?"

For the first time that week a speck of indignation rose within his chest. How dare this slave make such open requests, near demands, to him? Son of Horus, God Pharaoh, and king of the greatest kingdom? But then again, he had been the one to bring her down to this state of slave. By her still tender feet and hands and her pale skin she might have very well been a noblewomen in her own country. Using that as a deterrent for his anger, he calmed and debated his answer. He couldn't allow another to teach her, for that would require the lending of his millennium puzzle. In the least, he owed it to her. She wouldn't be so dependent on him once she simply learned the language. And yet, did he want her to be more independent of him?

That thought annoyed him. Of course he did.

"What could a girl like you, with nothing, offer to me that I do not already have?"

"Knowledge, your highness. I know of sciences and mathematics that your people have yet to dream of."

The Pharaoh rolled his eyes. "I doubt it."

She bit her lip, the fire in her eyes dimming in uncertainty. She knew he didn't believe her about the whole future delusion. He felt oddly triumphant. Right as he was opening his mouth to tell her to get back to work, she came up with another offer.

"I guess, all I have left is my body…?"

Heat rushed from the top of his head to his feet and back again, and he fought to control the blush that rose to his face. Angered at his unprecedented reaction, he shook his head furiously, both to deny her and to shake off the sudden enticing images in his head.

"Gods, no, if I wanted a bedmate I would have gotten me a wife by now." Before she could question him on this—as everyone did, damn them all and their moronic nosiness—he pushed in, "How about we play a game?"

She perked. Atem figured she thought anything was better than becoming the king's whore.

"What kind a game?"

He smiled. "Oh, not anything too serious. Just a mock shadow game. If you can survive ten minutes against me, I'll teach you what you seek."

She did not return his smile. "A shadow game…I don't like the sounds of that, your majesty."

"Wise girl, you shouldn't. Especially if it were a real shadow game."

"And what if I lose?"

He felt his smile turning into a satisfied smirk. "Then we'll see to a change in your wardrobe that is more, shall I say, tasteful."

The girl looked down at her simple, white dress and Atem could hear her wondering why the risk would be so low, and then it clicked in her head. He loved the outraged expression she shot at him.

"You wouldn't—"

"And you'll go back to the kitchens." he added. "And I am Pharaoh, mind you. There is nothing I could and would not do."

His last term had been much more threatening than the clothes. He wasn't as cruel as to dress her up as a whore and then throw her back into the servants' quarters. The girl would be raped and killed before she could blink. But seeing the array of emotions spread across her face over a week of cold, aloof stoniness and silence was somehow exhilarating. He had just wanted the thrill of seeing her rage. Inwardly, he mused at this new bout of mischievousness and wondered what Set would think of all this.

Yet, in the back of his mind, he questioned whether his second term was as harmless as he obliviously was trying to convince himself of. He once more eyed her bandages and remembered the beaten, bloody girl trying to hide herself away into a corner. Silently, he cursed himself. What made him put that up as a term?

But she nodded in agreement.

"Done."

And once more finding himself beneath the flame of her determined fire, Atem was hit with the reality that she most likely did hate him—and hated him very much indeed. And again he wondered why it disturbed him so much.

#$%*(*&^%$#$ $%&^*(&^%$#%^&*(

Kaiba had just finished his second coffee for the day when his personal cell rang. _There better be a mass system crash or the apocalypse,_ he thought in annoyance as he pulled it out and answered the call. He adjusted himself against the wall of his personal refreshments area.

"What?"

"Uh, sir, the, um…mainframe number three has been replaced by a sarcophagus."

Kaiba froze. Had he heard right? Of course he had. Anger bubbled in his throat. What foolish game were these idiots playing at?

"Excuse me?"

"A sarcophagus, sir. Those Egyptian coffins—"

"I know what that is." he snapped. "Who is this?"

"Saui Hikari, sir. Your third manager." said the voice nervously. "We're not quite sure what is going on and we think it might be a prank."

"And what do you expect me to do about it?"

"Well, um, we were wondering if you would have any idea how this came to be. I mean, it takes some elaborate prank to get an actual sarcophagus in the place of a two hundred pound computer tower. There's a mummy in there and everything."

In the background on the man's end he could hear the chatter of confused voices. Kaiba sighed in exasperation and pinched the bridge of his nose to keep his temper under control. It was probably a malfunction in some holographic device somewhere and the morons couldn't tell the difference between a hologram and the real thing. A compliment to his genius on one part, a complete annoyance on the other. He might as well go down and figure out just what the hell was going on.

The voices in the background suddenly rose in shouts of surprise. Kaiba stared at the earpiece before demanding what it was about.

"Sir, you won't believe it! The mainframe just reappeared like that! The sarcophagus is gone! What is going on…?"

The magic question of the day. The tall young man growled into the phone.

"It sounds like your problem is solved. Now please don't call me again unless it's a real problem."

"O-o-of course, Mr. Kaiba. Please excuse me…it was just all so strange!"

"I'm sure it is." And he hung up without bothering to say good-bye. Taking a deep breath and pinching his nose again to ride down his ire, Seto pushed off the wall and went to the counter to start up another cup of coffee. He was going to need all he could get that day.

"They better not call me about their wastebaskets turning into pyramids."


	4. The Memory Never Meant to Be

**Real sorry for the late update, people. I have a three month old baby, college, and two other stories I'm working on at the moment. XD I really need to stop being such a workaholic...**

Chapter 4: The Memory Never Meant to Be

The pale girl, now named Aleah by Yami, cocked her head to the side with her lips pinched. The movement struck a chord in the spirit and he couldn't help but think it was familiar. Words such as 'orchid lips' came to his mind, and he began to admire her face as the moon. He shook himself when he heard a load moan come from Yugi.

"Yugi, are you all right?"

"Ow, Ow, Ow, the drawers in my stomach!"

His grandfather spared little time in pulling the blocky, black register off his grandson. Yugi took a gulp of air once it was off which ended in a cough. Paper bills and coins decorated him like a player from a game show.

As spirit and grandfather alike gathered around Yugi, Aleah acted as though to shake off a thought from her mind and made her way around the counter, looking concerned. She stopped, however, to put a hand to her head again. She looked to Yami again, who couldn't help but meet her eye, and her expression changed.

"You?" she whispered.

"You know me?" Yami backtracked. "Wait—you can see me?"

Yugi was hauled back onto his feet, raining currency down his front. "She can see you?"

"See who?"

"Yami, grandpa. I think she can see Yami."

The old man blinked so hard his thick eyebrows met the top of his cheeks. "Girl, are you some sort of…sort of physic or something?"

"Aleah." whispered Yami. "Her name is Aleah."

"Wait, you know her?"

"Know who?"

Yugi gave an exasperated sigh. "Yami thinks he knows her. Says her name is Aleah."

"You know me?" pressed Yami, excited beyond reason. He brought himself closer to her even when she stepped back at his approached. "Please, tell me, do you know my name too?"

But something strange was happening to her. Her pale cheeks had become flushed with frustration and she had her hands to her head as though in pain. Blue eyes squinted out through creases of confusion.

"I—please, no. Go away."

But Yami hardly heard this. "You have got to tell me! What do you know? Please, tell me!"

"No! Yugi, make him go away! I don't like him. I don't like this!"

But the spirit went on nonetheless. "Why don't you like me? Please, just tell me-"

She tucked her head beneath her arms in a wail. "Yugi!"

"You're scaring her!" cried Yugi, "Just come back into the puzzle for now."

"No! She knows something! I know she does!"

But as Aleah gave another wail of dismay, arms about her head, Yami became unsure.

"It's probably best if you give her some space for now." said Yugi.

"Yes, maybe."

"What in the world is going on here?" said his grandfather as Yami reluctantly faded back into the puzzle.

"I'll explain later." He said as he hurried to her side. She had by now sunk down the wall behind the counter and broken down into sobs. Yugi's hands hovered about her, unsure of what to do. He wasn't entirely sure what was wrong, so he couldn't quite say how to comfort her.

"Aleah—"

"Where am I?" she sobbed. "All these images—memories—where am I? What time is this?"

"Time?" Solomon glanced at his wrist. "I believe it's about a quarter after four."

"No!" she cried. "No! What time. What time! And what is this place?"

Yugi was growing more flustered by the moment. "It's okay, Aleah, calmed down. Everything is okay now. Yami is back in the puzzle. What do you mean by time? Do you mean the year, Aleah?" somehow repeating her name made him feel like he was getting closer to her, maybe even close enough to wrap his arms about her and comfort her. But in her state, he wasn't sure physical touch would help.

"I—I'm not sure. Yes, year. Year!"

"It's 2008."

"Two…two…"

"May. May 10th."

"May…" she murmured, as though it was a calming balm. "May…May…but wait, where am I? What place is this?"

"Well, it's a game shop. Kame game sho-"

"No! Country—city—state—"

"Japan. Tokyo, Japan."

Her eyes snapped open and she gave him a very alarmed look.

"J-Japan!?"

"Yeah."

At that, she fell over in a dead faint upon him. Yugi held her, somewhat glad she had at least calmed down, and looked up at his grandfather, who looked beyond bewildered.

"What in the world was that about?"

"I don't know, grandpa. I'm really just about as lost as you are. I think she remembered something though. And she doesn't seem to like Yami much anymore, for some reason."

The old man snorted. "That is obvious enough. Take her to the living room and set her down."

"What about when she wakes up? What do we do then?"

"We'll figure that out when it happens. We can only take this one step at a time." He examined the passed out girl with a softening expression. "At least we have a name for her now. Aleah. Maybe it can give us a lead as to where her poor parents are."

As Yugi slung the girl onto his back and carried her to the couch, Yami reappeared with an anxious burst of sound.

"Why would she want to know the year?"

"Why are you asking me?" he said to the spirit. "You're the one usually answering my questions."

"And she knows me Yugi—she knows who I am! I know she does. But how can that be? I've never met anyone like her since my awakening, so how could she know me?"

"It all sounds very sci-fi to me." A thought occurred to Yugi as he crouched down and allowed the soft girl to slide off his back and onto the couch. "Yami, do you think there is such a thing as time travel?"

"Yes, but even if she did travel from ancient Egypt where she knew me, how would she know Japanese?"

"Not to mention how she doesn't even look Egyptian—or Japanese, for that matter." Yugi looked at her carefully. "Where would you say she is from? Europe? I know it's somewhere in the west."

"You would know more on this than I." said Yami reluctantly. The Pharaoh's gaze also drifted across the girl's face. Pale as the moon, lips like orchids—these thoughts brought a strange sense of déjà vu to him. Though, the girl was beautiful. A strange feeling stirred within his chest, making him uncomfortable. He didn't like being uncertain of his feelings. He always knew of his emotions, at least, if not his memories. "How did I know her name, Yugi? I feel that I know her but…I don't."

"Again, no need to ask me. I'm the least likely to know."

The spirit raised an eyebrow at his host. "You're not still angry with me, are you?"

"No. I'm just worried. I'm sorry if I sound snappish."

"It's all right, abiou. You are right, I probably shouldn't be asking all these questions to you."

"It _is_ somewhat unlike you." And the younger boy smiled at this. "Usually I have to bend over backwards to get you to voice your thoughts. So, I guess, I shouldn't be complaining."

"It's just…Yugi, _I knew her name._ She asked, and then suddenly I knew. And I was so sure she knew mine too—my real name. Not just Pharaoh." As though there were an invisible throne in the air, the spirit leaned back and crossed his legs and arms. "It was her I sensed up in the mountain. Something is happening."

"Something good, I hope?"

"I hope so too."

Yugi folded his hands in his lap. He couldn't help but notice how awfully pale she looked. He wondered what had shocked her so much about hearing she was in Japan. And who was she? Who was Aleah? A time traveler of sorts?

When he saw her lashes begin to flicker, his stomach leapt.

"I think you should go back." Yugi said. "Until she's ready for you, that is."

The disgruntlement that sizzled through the link was loud and clear, but when Yugi looked over his shoulder it was to see nothing but air. Yami's eager impatience made him fidget even more as she opened her eyes.

_I know her,_ he kept hearing. _I know her. And she knows me._

Why did that make him feel so uncomfortable? He couldn't help thinking of how he had felt when Tea had brushed over him and gone to the Pharaoh instead. He suddenly began wondering about all those times when Yami and he had combined. Had it been him his friends had been seeing? Or had it been Yami?

For some odd reason, remembering how Aleah had cried out for him in her panic instead of Yami helped him feel a little better. It was nice to know that, even if it was for only a moment, someone needed _him_.

! #%$%*&^%$# #$%^&^$# !#%$^&%$# #%$^&

Writing sticks scratch in the brief silence Atem gave his scribes to catch up with him. Their bald heads gleamed in the sunlight streaming in from the balcony as they bent low over their short tables strewn with papyrus scrolls. As he waited, he glanced to the side at Aleah. Her ice blue eyes were staring past the scribes entirely to nothing in particular. They didn't even quiver, so deep in thought she was. For not the first time he wanted to know what it was she had to think so deeply about so often. Those eyes of hers held a sharp intelligence that intrigued him, and at the same time bemused him. Though she now went with him nearly everywhere he went as his own personal attendant, he knew little more to nothing on what she truly thought of her surroundings, for she only spoke when she absolutely had to. It had only been a week since he—as was expected—crushed her in their little gamble. She didn't even last five minutes, let alone ten. It amused him that she had ever thought herself a match for a master of games such as he. As was his word, he sent her down to the kitchens to serve, part of him hoping that the kindness of the old cook would protect her useless inability to understand Egyptian.

But, of course, two nights later, the cook himself had brought her back up to him with fresh whip marks on her skin. She was like a useless puppy no one with a heart could spurn, and yet still annoying with its bad puppy habits.

He spotted the faded gleam of her brass chains and frowned. One would think his kindness would have opened her up to him. He hadn't even gone on his first threat of dressing her down to that of a common whore. Not only that, but he had honored her with the status of becoming his own personal slave—a position higher than most royal servants, let alone slaves. But, if anything, her words had only gone under lock down once more.

The scribes were staring pointedly at him. He cleared his throat. How long had he been lost in thought?

"Thus is my reasoning for declining the request to legalize the hunting of the river monsters hippopotamus, though should any citizens or personages belonging to foreign lands should ignore this decree and get killed in the unfortunate event of finding themselves clamped in the jaws of the beasts, I, nor anyone else, can take responsibility for the false choice of said citizen."

By the gods, this was boring.

Now and then as he took brief breaks to allow the scribes to catch up and to take a drink of water, he'd peek over at Aleah. Only a few times did she even show signs of life, either to move a piece of her pale hair or to adjust her ankles. Other than that, her eyes still looked off as though seeing another world entirely. She was like a statue. The urge to reach out and touch her and startle her out of her revere, like touching still water, occurred to him more than once.

A half hour later, he had had enough.

"I believe that's good enough. You are dismissed."

"But sire, the wheat shares—"

A sharp look from the Pharaoh and the man fell into an embarrassed silence. He bowed his shining head and left with the rest of his brethren, his tablet and supplies tucked securely under their arms. The snap of the door shutting made Aleah blink and look around as though waking from a dream. She sighed.

"What do you want, your highness?"

He flinched. She spoke! "What do you mean? And have I given you permission to speak?"

"No, but you keep looking at me as though you want to ask something. I merely wished to ease your mind, your majesty."

He grimaced. She had noticed? Perhaps he wasn't as coy as he thought he was. Though with her deadpanned voice she probably didn't care.

"I was…simply wondering what you were thinking. Finalizing laws and responding to the various letters is not the most entertaining of duties." When she didn't respond to this, but simply stared past him to the sunlight glowing off the polished floors, he asked, "What were you thinking about?"

Her strange eyes flickered to him briefly before looking back to the floor. "Just daydreaming. And I'm rather hungry...your majesty."

Atem frowned. What an ambiguous and unsatisfying answer if there ever were any. He looked at the sun on the floor, estimating the time by where it shone.

"Yes, it would appear to be about that time. I shall call for supper."

He raised his hand to call one of the servants hiding in the shadows, but hesitated.

"What would you like to eat?"

She twitched her head at him. "Excuse me? Your majesty?"

"To eat. What would you like to eat?"

She shrugged. Her apathy irked him. What had happened to that fire? The flashing passion in her eyes that lit up her face and made all her muscles taunt?

"Very well, you shall have nothing, then." he said, hoping to inspire something- _anything_, into that blank face.

To his dismay, she did nothing, just kept staring off into the distance with her creamy hands folded in her lap. He gestured the servant over and gave the man his orders before excusing him to the kitchens. His insides felt tight and near broiling with his own inner heat. He ground his teeth and excused the last servant in the shadows.

The girl made no sign to show she realized she was alone in the room with the Pharaoh. A grunt from him made her gaze flicker to him. But she said nothing, did nothing. Just looked at him.

"Why would you not tell me what you wanted?"

She inclined her head. "I didn't care, your grace."

"Did not care for what? I thought you said you were hungry?"

"Pharaoh, may I ask a question of his highness?"

"When you have yet to answer my own?"

"In a way it is an answer to yours."

He gave a huff of irritation. "Very well. I allow it."

"Why is it," at this her eyes rose to his, and for a minute he felt a thrill as he thought he could see a bit of sharpness to her gaze, perhaps the flint to her fire? The rest of her question squashed any elation he might've been feeling. "That you give so much attention to the wants of a lowly slave such as I? Why do you allow a slave to even speak to you? For frankly, it is demeaning to you."

His eyebrows lowered into an indignant scowl. "I am the morning and the evening star, I may do as I wish to who I wish and give my attention as I feel. Besides, it was I who put you in this position."

She shrugged—again! The aggravation! "Very well."

"Not very well, you have yet to answer my question."

"I did, your highness. I said I just didn't care."

He fumbled to cover up the way his stomach dropped to his feet. "I didn't mean that question."

"Then what question did you mean, your highness?"

"What were you thinking about?"

"Daydreams."

"Be more specific."

"You've got to be joking."

"The Pharaoh does not joke."

"I seriously doubt that."

The bubbling within him jumped to a searing boil. Was she mocking him? No, he would not stand for that. He had been lenient enough. Far too lenient, in fact. He had gone out of his way to be kind to her all blasted week, and did she now have the gall to not even notice? What kind of woman was this to completely ignore a king!

"Leave me this instant! Return to your place!"

The place he spoke of consisted of a large pillow in the corner of his chambers. She moved to get up, chains clinking, when she stumbled. He didn't even let a mere twitch pass him to help her, expecting her to catch herself. A split second later he was proven wrong as she tumbled from her place and onto the polished floor. Her hair spilled out into a patch of sunlight where it burned a white-gold. For the first time, Atem got a good look at her feet. They were bleeding, covered in sores, and raw from abuse as though she had tried to trek the hot, desert sands bare foot. Frayed, makeshift bandages, probably torn from the bottom of her skirt, were wrapped about the worst of the wounds.

She scrambled to hide them. White gold hair tugged back into the shadows.

"What—your feet…gods, what happened to your feet?"

When she said nothing but hid her face behind a curtain of hair, he approached her, both frustrated and, against his will, concerned. No wonder she had tripped. How had she walked so long without him noticing? Why hadn't she said anything.

He became impatient with her silence. "Answer me, Aleah."

"If you must know, it's those sandals you gave me, along with everything else. Since you took away my own shoes-"

He scoffed. "How could mere sandals do this to your feet? Let alone wearing nothing at all? Are your feet made of silk?"

She didn't respond to this, tucking her feet deeper beneath her and smearing faint lines of blood on the floor. He growled and crouched besides her, yanking them back out. This drew out a gasp of pain, which he did his best to ignore though it caused his stomach to leap. Carefully, he inspected them, brushing his fingers along the skin left unmarked. What he felt alarmed him: softer than silk without a callous in sight, like a babe's feet. A time or two the tip of his Millennium Puzzle dropped low enough to slide along her calf.

The wounds on such soft flesh suddenly sickened him. Without thinking, his fingers trailed around the cuffs to her ankles and up her calves, holding her when she tried to flinch away from his touch. Soft, silk-like skin all along the way.

"How have you kept your feet and legs so soft? Have you never worked a day in your life? But how can that be? Were you carried everywhere?"

Between the curtains of her long, somewhat tangled hair he spied her glower.

"Where I come from we just have a lot nicer shoes, your highness. And, since I don't know what you've done with mine…"

His fingers continued to trace her leg, carefully alighting upon the scant, uninjured skin of her feet in wonder. She kept starting back to pull her legs away, sucking in breath when he gripped hard around her injured ankle to stop her.

"I won't harm you." he said.

To his indignation, she raised her eyebrows skeptically, but wisely said nothing.

After summoning a physician through one of the guardsmen at the door, he considered her still crouched on the floor, trying to hide behind her great mane of hair. He shook his head. She looked a mess. Why hadn't he noticed any of this before? Had he simply never taken the time to look down? This bothered him more than he cared to admit.

When the physician came, followed by the guardsman who quickly swept up the girl in his arms, Atem sent them to his quarters with the key to her chains, leaving him alone to think over the strange, but fascinating softness of her skin. She was even more fragile than he had previously thought. How could she have been anything other than of the highest royalty? And if that was the case, he had quite the rarity for a slave. But only the best for the Pharaoh and demi-god of the world, and this set him grinning happily. Though, it was unlike him to not wonder to the purpose of this girl. Where exactly had she come from? And why had she come here of all places?

A knock came at the door to his meeting room and Set sidled in, expression troubled. Atem was quick to gesture his friend to him. Set bowed low at his feet.

"Your grace, a dire situation has occurred."

"Dire? Will I be surprised, though?"

Set lifted his head to give his cousin a weak smile. "Maybe only slightly."

"Well?"

"A few idiot magicians lost control of some Shadow Creatures. They are now causing chaos down at the marketing district." His eyes darkened. "But that's not the slightly surprising part."

"What is it then? That isn't bad enough?"

Set frowned. "There have been some…uncalled for attacks on some desert villages, your majesty. A few select people known to have Ka of sorts were taken, and the surviving villagers are blaming you. They say it was Egyptian soldiers that attacked them."

Atem's forehead furrowed and a twinge of unease grew in his gut. The report didn't sound extremely out of the ordinary, but the look on Set's face spoke of warning. "Do you know where these people were taken? Are you sure this wasn't merely procedure for the locking away of their Ka?"

"If they were, your grace, do you not think I would have returned them by now? Besides, if this were so there was no need to attack the villages."

The Pharaoh pinched the bridge of his nose. This was indeed something he couldn't ignore. And yet it seemed to mean nothing at all.

"Why am I only hearing this now?" he asked.

"Because I too thought it was just procedure, your grace. I thought it was just a little overzealous on the soldiers part and it was just a continuation of sealing more of the Shadow Games away."

"Do you have any guess as to what is behind this?"

"No, your grace."

"In that case, come back to me when you have more information. With what we have now I can't do much. See that these people are sent a proper apology today."

"Yes, your grace."

With this, Set straightened and left with a sweep of blue robes. Left to his own devices, Atem sighed heavily and looked up at the scenes painted across the ceiling.

"Seems of late no matter how hard I try," he muttered, "people are set on being cold to me."

! #$#^%$# $ $ %#

Scores of letters and numbers spilled across the screen, varying flashes of color against the blank white. Brackets closed in his commands. Commands that were blurring into one another. Seto Kaiba blinked hard. Perhaps another coffee break was needed. Rubbing his fingers into his eyes in attempts to reach the ache behind them, he stood and stretched. A digital clock in the corner of the end screen of the three monitors displayed 11:34pm. It was late. But Kaiba was only getting started. Nonetheless, Mokuba would probably not be pleased with him. They did, after all, still have school.

_Why am I even in High School still_, he thought blithely. _I could have passed those measly exams in my sleep by the time I was twelve._

He certainly would get a lot more work done if that was the case. Originally he had stayed in school so as to give the front of being a mentally healthy teenager to the public as well as his stockholders. Being thought of as not being a fully socially developed person was not the best way of building trust. Not that he would even dare to think of those brats as being socially developed.

This was just getting ridiculous, though. Getting up at 6:30 just to sit around for eight hours doing nothing? And when he had deadlines to make, programs to oversee, hallucinating idiots who saw mainframes turning in to sarcophagi—stuff like that, to do. Perhaps he should reconsider 'graduating' early.

With a small groan, he made his way to the break room just outside his office. The hallway's bright lights and white walls made him wince after spending so long in his dark office. He moved by the scent of coffee beans.

He had just set his coffee to brew when he turned to find a very, very unwelcomed guest.

Swathed in white, linen robes, set with turban and all, stood an Egyptian with very unnerving, strange eyes. A golden ankh shaped key sat at a rest on his chest.

Seto didn't flinch. He didn't even blink. Instead, he folded his arms, leaned against the counter, and drew up his usual scowl.

"You." He said. "Come to spout nonsense, I suppose? Should I even asking how you got past security?"

"I have not come here to argue against your stubbornness." said the Egyptian. "I have come for your help."

Now this Seto had not been expecting. But that didn't change his response. He gave an annoyed grunt and turned back to check on his coffee.

"What is with you random Egyptians thinking you can demand help from me? What, are you going to ask me for a Duel Monsters tournament too? Forget it, I only did that once because it was I wanted to do, not that little bitch's idea."

"The stakes are much higher this time."

Kaiba snorted. "They always are."

"And it is not a tournament I seek. I am seeking a person: a young woman of great importance."

"Oh spare me." He snapped. "The police are who you are looking for. Get out of my sight or I'm calling security."

The Egyptian's eyes narrowed. Was that just him, or had the room's temperature dropped several degrees? He would have to talk to maintenance about that.

Brown fingers lifted up the strange golden key. "Seto Kaiba, you can either help me willingly or have your hand will be forced."

"Was that a threat?"

"This girl also affects you too, Kaiba. It is not just for me. Do you not wonder why strange items from the past have been replacing important objects in your company?"

Needles prickled up his back, sending the hair on his arms on end. He now had his attention.

"So she's the little conspirator then? Let me guess, she bribed my employees to play those stupid pranks, hoping to make a fool of me."

The man's eyes narrowed further. "Do not be foolish. She knows little to nothing of you. It is the time rift she has created which-"

"Spare me the details. Why can't you just find her yourself?" Seto eyed the man, from his golden key to his stony expression. "You don't seem like a man who has trouble finding who he needs."

"I don't." he said. "But she is different. She runs on her own plane of time, such as I, so I can only guess as to where she is. Since the time rift opened up near here, my only clue is that she is in this area."

"And you need me…?"

"You too are a man who does not have trouble finding who he needs. I will continue to search, but she must be found before she finds the Pharaoh."

Seto inwardly groaned. Always it had to do with that other face of Yugi's. This just had to be more of the hocus pocus he didn't have time for—even without school in the mix.

"Why don't you just go to the Pharaoh, then?" said Seto, beyond exasperated. "If that is who she is aiming for, she might already be there."

"You do not understand, Kaiba. He should not even be allowed to look at her. Just seeing her will ruin the time continuum—battles will come to the chosen one that he is not yet prepared for, the world may be ruined!"

"Yeah. Whatever."

"Please, I am begging of you—"

"No, you're leaving."

"Kaiba—"

The coffee machine dinged. Not stupid enough to turn his back on the man, crazy or not, Seto took out his coffee left handed and brought up the creamer with the other. He glared at the other while he lazily applied the creamer to his coffee. Sugar helped boost the caffeine's effect.

"If you have any sense," he said, setting the creamer down. "You'll get out of here while I'm feeling merciful. Whoever you are."

For the first time, the man's face change, showing a bit of frustration. This satisfied him. At least the idiot wasn't a robot. As he took the first sip of his coffee the man dropped his hold on his strange medallion and reached into his robes instead.

"Your mind will change." he said, and the lanky CEO tensed as he began to bring something out. A gun? He readied his hold on the hot coffee. Maybe he could throw it in the man's face and while he was distracted by the sting duck under and disarm him.

But it wasn't a gun he pulled out. It was a piece of paper. He set it gently on a side table by the door.

"We will meet again, Kaiba."

"Of course." said Seto with a roll of his eyes. It was another thing his strange Egyptian visitors often told him. Was it suppose to make them sound more mystical?

With that, the man turned and vanished into the shadows. Seto's free hand twitched towards his cell phone to call security, but a part of him knew the man was probably already gone. He had not met this one often, but every time he had a knack of vanishing when he needed to.

He finished his coffee and left without a glance to the paper the man had left for him. Let the janitors pick it up in the morning, he thought. Good riddance to those freaks. He was tired of their games.

On opening his door, however, that thought changed. The raw glow of his computer screens had vanished. In their place, showing faintly by the strips of city light allowed in through the blinds and the light from the hallway, was a tall, stone tablet. On its face he could make out a carving, but a carving of what he couldn't tell, and didn't care. He stepped forward and touched it, hoping it was a trick. Rough stone met his fingertips.

Not even sparing a breath for a curse he spun on his heel and dashed back into the break room. The paper felt oddly crinkled in his hand, as though it had gotten wet and dried once or twice. As he opened it, he took out his phone and called security.

"There's an Egyptian man in white robes in this building. No one is to let him out, you hear?"

As he heard the confirmation of the guard on the other end, he took in the picture of a girl on the page. She had curly, platinum blond hair and wide blue eyes. Something made him shiver at the sight of her face, and a familiar sense of déjà vu came over him.

Only one word crossed his mind when he re-entered his office to see the stone tablet begin to fade and his computers reappear.

_Bastards._


	5. A Running Memory

**Good crap, I'm hungry...**

**But besides that, homies, check out my non-fanfiction work on fictionpress! I am pseudo pleased with myself with how they turned out, and they are better edited than these. But what YOU think is way more useful than what my megalomaniac self thinks. So check 'em out! Leave a review! They'll be worth more than gold to me. **

Chapter 5: A Running Memory

Though it had let up during the day to haze over the world like a grey blanket, the rain came down in torrents late that afternoon, bringing with it an early nightfall. Yugi didn't mind the rain. There was something comforting about being safe and warm inside while a storm raged outside. Finding himself feeling awkward and tongue twisted before the quiet Aleah, he escaped upstairs to his room, where he sat wrapped up tightly in his comforter. A flash of light with an accompanying boom gave the impression of a sky warring with itself. Sighing, he tucked the comfort up to his chin, and just watched.

Yami felt no need to disturb his peace. He had his own thoughts to turn to. So Yugi found one of the rare occasions when he was truly alone, but not in a bad way.

He didn't know what the white girl's place was. Was she to be a friend? A stranger who came and went? So far he still knew little to nothing about her besides the fact that she somehow found comfort in his presence. It was probably because he appeared so harmless. In a way, he was. Completely harmless. It didn't bother him thought. Still…who was this girl? Should he even bother?

A flash lit up his world. Slowly, he began to count. Three seconds later a boom rattled the house. He smiled as he felt it. He almost missed the quiet knock on his door.

"Come in!"

A pale face peered in. Before he could reconsider allowing her in, Aleah slipped in, still dressed in the shorts and shirt Tea had leant her. They hung on her a few sizes too big.

"Aleah." he said as greeting. "There's another blanket in the closet if you want to watch the storm with me. It can get rather cold up here."

With a bashful smile she retrieved said blanket and wrapped up across from him to the point he could only see the puff of her white hair and those big round eyes.

"Yugi…" she said hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"I…" her voice trembled. "I don't know what to do."

He tried to give her a reassuring smile, because in all honesty, he didn't know what to do either. It was a feeling he was use to, though.

Another flash of lightening lit up the room. This time Yugi counted two and a half seconds between the boom and the flash. The storm had to be right above them.

"I…I think I'm remembering." she continued softly. "But...it hurts. It's making my head spin. One minute I'm remembering running in the rain, a lot like this, and the next I'm standing in a sun so hot with sand going on as far as the eye can see. Then I'm, then I'm…" the bundle of blankets shook. "Then things I don't remember at all. It sounds so true, but…they're things that are me, memory of me, but…not of me."

Yugi stared at her. The last paragraph had been the most she had spoken at one time since they had found her.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. But it…it scares me. I feel like I know myself, but right before I can grasp an exact memory, it tends to slip away. It's becoming more solid though and," she looked up from the floor to look at him. Her eyes were bright in the dim streetlights. "I'm not suppose to be here, Yugi. I meant…I meant to go home. But now I'm farther from home than ever before, and after how hard I tried to get out…get out…"

"Get out where?"

"Out of the past…where he was."

Instantly he felt Yami in him awaken and tune his attention in. He inwardly squirmed beneath the attention and hoped Yami had the sense to not come out and ruin the progress.

Seeing that she looked rather uncomfortable, Yugi looked for a change in topic.

"Maybe if you don't think so hard about it, it will come to you. Sort of like a hard math question. How about we talk about something else?"

She looked surprised for a moment, but smiled. "I have been meaning to get to know you."

He flinched. "Me?"

"Of course. I'm sorry I've been so out of it the past few days."

"You did get your brains scrambled pretty good by whatever happened."

"First off, you're really Japanese, right?"

He chuckled. "That should be obvious. What are you? Do you remember where you're from?"

Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment in concentration. Only a second later, though, she said, "North Dakota. In America."

"America! I knew you were from somewhere over there. How can you speak Japanese so well then?"

"I…I don't know." and as thought to drive his attention from that fact, she quickly added, "But you don't really look Japanese."

He shrugged. "Yami and I do look a lot alike."

"Yami?"

"That spirit that you've been seeing sometimes. He is a really nice guy when you get to know him."

"I'm sure he is."

When she fell silent after this, he felt a twinge of unease. "Do you…do you perchance remember something about him that could explain why you don't like him?"

She looked to the side and brought the blanket up to the bottom of her eyes. Inside him, if Yami had fingers, he would've been gripping Yugi's shoulders to the point he couldn't feel them.

"He…" and with an air of hesitancy, "but he's dead, isn't he?"

"Well, he is a spirit. Just being spirit usually implies that one is dead."

"But it's more than that. He's old now, isn't he? Maybe four thousand years old."

Yugi raised his eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

"I knew him once."

White blazed through the room. Only a split second later came an earth shattering boom shook the house. Aleah squeaked and ducked beneath her blankets. Admittedly, he had jumped too, but at the same time the sound had been thrilling. It was part of being a boy to love loud noises and huge explosions.

"Aleah?"

All that remained of her was a curl of blond bangs. He tipped over onto all fours and made his way over to her as another flash and accompanying boom rocketed the earth, his blanket trailing behind him.

"Are you okay?"

He dared to set a hand on her knee. She held perfectly still. Feeling the cold air he reached behind him and rewrapped himself up in the blanket, waiting.

"He was a cruel man."

"Yami?"

"He was a pharaoh back then, and with all the arrogance and blindness that comes with being such. He thought I was a spy, then a foreigner who had lost its way, and finally a slave who thought nothing of royalty. When he didn't keep me in chains he kept me on a silk cushion like some prize pet or a treasure made of glass."

Yugi felt his blood chill and something within him tremble. He could feel Yami's presence as well, frozen against the door of his soul room. Was this really Yami? Had Dartz been right about him through and through?

Aleah's voice was steady, yet the pause she gave after this shook with hesitation. Rain pattered loudly on the window, sending drippeling, melting shadows against the walls.

She took a shuddering breath. "But he was so kind. He was so fierce in his loyalty to his friends and wouldn't have hesitated to protect that which he loved, or to stand up for what he believed in. He was passionate—he felt everything on a much deeper level than anyone, whether it was anger or happiness or sadness. Roaring with anger. Leaping with joy. But the one time I saw him cry was when he was absolutely silent…"

"Aleah…" he said, surprised when his voice came out a croak. She sounded so sincere and warm. She didn't just know him, she sounded like she had…like she had…

Suddenly she dropped the blanket cover. Behind it her eyes were bright and burning with inner fire. He knew if he could see the rest of her face her teeth would be bared and her cheeks flushed with passion.

"But he wouldn't stand up for me! Oh no! I should have known he would just be an arrogant pharaoh in the end. I should have known I wouldn't be anything more than a slave. You can't help how people are raised. Traitor."

"Aleah did you—are you sure he would've done something like that? You sounded like you were friends—"

"Friends?!" she gave an angry cough of a laugh. "He lied to me. I don't know what we were, and I don't really care."

Thunder rumbled in the silence that followed. Yugi eventually pulled his hand back from her knee and looked down at the floor, as though ashamed. What could have Yami done to make such an enemy of a girl who knew him so well? Somehow, this bothered him more than the fact that a girl who had been alive four thousand years ago was somehow sitting before him now.

Within him, he could feel the soul of Yami quivering. He could barely comprehend the emotions shifting through the link between them. He had a feeling that not even Yami himself could comprehend what was going on in his head right now. At the end of the roll of thunder, right before the sound of rain took over, Yugi heard him whisper into his mind.

_What did I do? _

But Yugi wasn't sure he wanted to ask that question. Instead, he could see the tears begin to trickle down her face and become preoccupied by the ache in his chest. Without thinking he reached out to her and hugged her quilted form against his own blanketed one.

"I'm not from this time." she whispered. "I wasn't from his time either. I don't belong."

"When are you from then?"

"2016. I just wanted…I don't know how I went back so many thousands of years, nor do I know how I even got back. I just remember leaping into the gap in the air and wanting so badly to just go home. Please, Yugi, I'm not insane and I'm not some freak either. I'm just…man, I don't even know how I'm going to catch up with all my homework."

"I've had the feeling before." he said, pulling back to wipe a wad of blanket down her cheeks. "On some of the adventures I've been pulled into, I often wondered if I'd ever get home again, let alone graduate."

She gave a watery sniff. "What kind of stuff happened to you?"

This gave him pause. He had never actually had to recant all his adventures before to a stranger. Feeling hesitant, he scratched his cheek under the blanket.

"I don't know. You'll probably think I'm insane."

"You don't think I'm insane, do you?"

The big blue eyes were watching him. He felt his palms begin to sweat.

"No! No, of course not. I mean, if half the stuff that happened around my puzzle could happen, why not time travel?"

The gracious smile she gave him made his palms sweat more.

"Ah, yeah, that golden pyramid thing. He wore that all the time too. I think he told me that's why he could understand what I was saying."

Yugi gaped. "The puzzle can do that?"

"I guess—but tell me about these things that happened to you! I do love stories."

And as she nested deeper into her blankets with another sniff, he couldn't see how he could refuse her. He had so many more question to ask her—like what was Yami's true name? What had it been like back then? And even more importantly, how had Yami gotten stuck in the Millennium Puzzle in the first place?

And yet all her attention was on him. Solely him, as though he were the only person in the world.

He grinned. "Well, for starts, when I first got the puzzle I got all these blackouts where I couldn't remember what had happened. I later found out that that was when Yami took over to take revenge on whoever was, well, in need of some straightening out, I guess. He had a certain term for it."

_They were hurting you, abiou, _he heard faintly in his head. _Of course I would do something to bring justice to them._

She frowned. "I saw that once. You changed to him. Only sort of. How does that all work?"

And as the flashes of lightening grew less frequent and the thunder more distant, Yugi explained himself in a way he hadn't had to before. When new people were introduced to his shifting personalities, they usually took it as some strange change of faces, as Kaiba had, or took the fact that he was sharing his body with some other spirit in stride. And of course they'd end up focused on Yami, curious as to what this other person was. Even in Kaiba's case he was more interested in the serious gamer than Yugi himself.

But for once, it was the other way around. Aleah was someone who already knew Yami completely and didn't care to know more. Yugi, on the other hand, she knew nothing about.

And…he liked that.

! #%$%%^$#%^&%$##&(&*)*&^%$^#

When he entered his chambers he caught Aleah stepping as though in a game along the lines of the stone tiles. Any uneasiness he had concerning her—her hatred, her feet, the fact he didn't even notice- left him, and he sighed.

"Aleah, what have I said about staying off your feet?"

She flinched and the shock caused her to lose her balance. She toppled to the floor where she proceeded to pout at him angrily.

"I'm sorry, Pharaoh. It's just…" she scrunched up her face. "Have you ever tried to sit all day long? It's torture."

"Actually, I have. And yes, it is." He closed the door behind him. "Now, if you're so eager to be up, I would like you to help cleanse myself. I feel filthy." As he pulled off his delicate royal coat he caught sight of her bright red face. This gave him an impression of a young maiden rather than a child—a young girl still yet untouched by man.

"You mean just, you know, your legs and feet as always, right your highness?"

He blinked at her. Feeling slightly mischievous, though he didn't know why for it was her duty as his slave, or any other slave he requested for that matter, he said, "No. More than thus. I'd like a bath."

Red crawled up to the very roots of her hair and her eyes stood out like jewels amongst it all. She covered her face in her hands. He felt a laugh beginning to shake him. What had she to be so embarrassed about? Did she think he asked her to fondle him or something? Dance naked? But, once she lowered her hands, she moved back to her feet and waited for him to peel the rest of his jewelry off until all he wore was his kilt and the Millennium Puzzle about his neck. Fetching a fresh kilt from a basket besides his bed, he ushered her on.

"Come on. You know where it is."

She jumped nervously into action, going towards a statue of Bastet in a small, offset hall in the room. Behind the catlike goddess hung a thick, woven tapestry of various dyed wools. Lifting up a side of the tapestry she disappeared behind it with him following closely. Behind the tapestry was a cool, tunnel like stairway curving down to a manmade, granite lined pool filled in by a carved trench of the Nile River. Tightly woven pillars and trees made an impenetrable wall all the way around the pool, allowing only a low cut hole near the bottom with a wooden screen to allow water in and keep crocodiles out. The wall provided upmost privacy. Atem had often had the caretakers bring Aleah down here to bathe, hoping to knock some sense into her as to how magnanimous he really was. This was _his_ private pool after all.

Now, he wasn't quite sure what to say. Yes, this was her job as his personal slave, and if she felt she was well enough to walk might as well put her to work. Yet he still felt like he should do something, anything, as the burning emotion in his chest demanded. And for the first time she would be walking down into the waters with him, blushing as though…as though knowing, as Pharaoh, he could really do as he pleased with her.

Into the cool water he stepped, watching the light fraction and flicker upon its surface. How did taking a bath become so confusing? When he walked waist deep into the water and she didn't follow, he turned around. Aleah stood in a patch of sunlight clutching towels and lye to her chest which she had gathered from alcoves in the tunnel. Her hair burned white-gold and brilliant; her face pink like a pond lily in her shyness.

A sensation as though his ka was escaping came over him. This couldn't be a girl. This couldn't even be a woman. Even as she tried to hide her face behind the bundle of towels, bright blue eyes peeking out over the linen, he couldn't reclaim his escaped ka.

This creature had to be a goddess.

He beckoned her down.

Her slender body tensed, but she placed the towels down at the side and took up the lye and washcloth. Instead of undressing to the necessaries, however, she plunged in fully dressed, bandages and all, and legs pinched in as far as they could go and still allow movement. First, he stared. Then, as she gave him the full brunt of her embarrassed, reproachful face, he threw his head back and laughed. He knew she did her best not to glower at him.

"Isis, Aleah, what was all that?"

"What?"

"You look, good gods, like you tried dying your face with pomegranate juice while trying not to wet yourself. And you didn't have to keep your dress on."

She hid her face. Her voice, however, held a biting tone. "For your information, Pharaoh, I may be a slave, but where I come from no one dresses like those slave dancer _whores_ of yours in public or for any king, for that matter."

He smiled weakly, still trying hard not to laugh. "Though you were once poor, you certainly don't have the manner of one. Only the nobility have such modesty as you. But I guess it would be so with your people if it's as cold as I think it is in your homeland. Surely you are from the north, and is there not snow there?"

"Only in the winter."

"Nonetheless, if it's cold enough for ice to fall from the sky, it's unnaturally cold. Thus, more clothing."

She lifted up the lye and cloth gingerly, as though trying to keep water from getting on her still dry top. "Do you want me to do my duty or what, your highness?"

"Of course." He stepped down to the floor of the pool and turned his hands outward to her in invitation. She grimaced when water reached even higher on her as she stepped towards him and rubbed lye all over the rag. The touch of her fingers as she placed her rag sent an unbidden shiver of goose bumps across his skin, which he ignored. He didn't want to think too much about the fact that she now touched him all over. The end of her white hair floated across the top of the water as she moved about him, catching momentary flickers of sunlight through the canopy. He watched it in faint fascination.

By the time she came back around to the front, her blush had faded away. Pale lashes fanned across her slightly darker cheeks, and her lips were parted as she worked. What could he do? He had been treating her as a slave since she had gotten here. She hated him! That much he could see in her glower, no matter the kindness in her newly released words. He had still refused her lesson in Egyptian, to her increasing frustration, but it had reached the point why even he didn't know why he clung to her dependency so tenaciously.

Who was this person? Why did he long for the fire of her eyes? Why did he long for the snap of her words? All they brought him was dishonor. No. He refused to let himself be swayed.

But then her lashes lifted and he was caught in the blue. Such peculiar eyes, so unlike the dark ones common to people of the desert. Air became sticky in his lungs.

"Care to lift up your arms?"

He did so and she proceeded to scrub along his sides and the undersides of his arms. Suds lined her arms like fluffy, creamy sleeves. The strange warmth from the day before burned his chest. Before he knew what he was doing, he moved by it, needing to do something, anything.

"What do you want?" he murmured.

She paused and looked at him uncertainly. Diamonds of light played over her face, reflected from the water.

"What was that?"

"What do you want? Nobility? Jewels? A white Arabian steed? Shadow powers?"

She ogled at him, lowering her hand from his raised arm uncertainly. After a few brief seconds of him watching her, tracing the lines of her long, blond lashes and platinum curls with his eyes, she frowned.

"Are…you okay, your highness? Did something happen? I've heard a hint from Set that there's some crazy thief guy killing people and setting monsters on the loose—did you see something? Did someone really important die?"

"No. No, I…I just want to know. What do you want? I…" Feeling the heat rising up his neck and constricting his throat, he lowered his arm to rinse it off and draw for time. He should have said nothing. Why did he always have to act so idiotic? It was unseemly of a pharaoh. But before he could recant his words, she spoke.

"Well, I'd really like my shoes back, your majesty."

His heart leapt. Was that all?

"Those strange things?"

"Hey, Egyptian shoes are really rough and make my feet smell. They're also hard to run in." She turned to fetch a bottle of oils and lye still on the steps for his hair. He caught a brief glimpse of the transparent, wet portion of her dress sticking to her waist before she came back and he did his best to not draw her attention to the affects it had on him.

"Hard to run in? How is that important?"

"I like running." she simply said, the bottle in her hands. "It's something I use to do when I was back home."

"You ran? What do you mean? Were you a messenger?" He curiously glanced at her body. Instead of seeing the lean, skinny machine of a runner, however, he made out supple softness and curves which sent the hair on his arms prickling. Noticing his gaze, she blushed.

"No, not like that. I wasn't even a real athlete. My parents moved too much for me to do that. I just…whenever I got frustrated or was upset, I'd like to run, and sometimes if the track team was out practicing I'd go race them. I'm a sprinter, your highness."

Forcing himself to look away from her rippling figure beneath the water, he furrowed his eyebrows at her. "Moved? Track team? Sprinter? Forgive me, I'm afraid I do not understand."

"A track team was, um, crap I guess those type of sports are for the Greeks, um…they were a group of people that like to race for sport. You know, like competitively. They practice and train to try and make themselves as fast as possible."

"That sounds like children and soldier's play."

"Whatever. The point is, they were a bunch of people that liked to run and it's sort of a big deal where I'm from. There's two different types of running: long distance running, which depends mainly on endurance, and sprinting, which focuses on speed. Due to I don't really train, I don't have the endurance to be a long distance runner, so I'm more of a sprinter."

Atem scratched his neck in bemusement. "So strange. Having running as a…wait, did you do this for your living?"

"A hobby. Athletes are those who do it for a living. And there really isn't any way to make a living off of it, I would think, your highness."

"So very, very strange…and moving? From place to place? Were your family nomads?"

"No, your majesty. My step father just had a job that jumped all over the place, so we had to move from town to town where his work went."

"Sounds difficult."

"It was." She paused, unstopping the bottle. Water licked at the bottom curve of her breasts as she stared into its depths. "It is."

He bowed his head to allow her to rub the lye and fragrant oil through his hair into a wispy lather. He had had others wash his hair before, but what he did not expect were her nails, which weren't rubbed away like most working servants or slaves. Surprise overtook him as they pleasantly scratched his head. He wanted to melt to the bottom of the pool. Already he could feel his knees bending.

"Uh, pharaoh, you're going to drown yourself."

He didn't care. Drowning didn't sound so bad. Why hadn't any of the servants had any sort of long nails? Then again, they're line of work had to be grueling, and all Aleah had to pass her time was cleaning up his quarters and whatever else he required of her.

Once she had finished scrubbing him, he leaned back and allowed himself to float peaceably across the pool, watching the great palm leaves shift in an almost non-existent breeze and feeling his puzzle weight down gently at his neck. Aleah, however, quickly got out while he wasn't looking and when he had the chance to turn back to her she had a long towel tucked tightly about her. Her face was pink again. He chuckled.

"What are you so nervous about showing?"

She glared. "I'm not comfortable with all my assists showing through a wet, white dress, okay?"

He shrugged, though, secretly, he was somewhat disappointed. Her determination to hide herself just made him want to see all the more. The covering of a woman's body was considered to be both modest and sensual, depending on the occasion. He wondered if she knew that. But then again, what 'occasion' was it anyways?

She waited impatiently for him at the edge of the pool. He sighed heavily at her poor etiquette before finding his feet on the bottom of the pool again and making his way towards her. Her hair was still half dry, and it gleamed once more in the scattered sunshine. As he stepped into the towel she held out for him, he reached out a hand to touch it. Silk ran against his fingertips. She appeared to ignore his touch as she tied the towel about him and it encouraged him to step closer and greedily reach his hands through her hair. Before he knew what he was doing he had his face in that mass of beautiful, gleaming silk, breathing in her scent. It was sweet, like the aroma of an exotic flower he had yet to place.

It was her sudden trembling that woke him up. He stepped away quickly. Those blue eyes were wide…fearful.

He cursed. Angry with himself he brushed passed her and back up the steps. On reaching his room he moved to the golden chest in the corner where he had stashed her strange items among other prized possessions. When Aleah finally had the courage to follow, towel still wrapped tightly about her dripping form, he had her strange, pale shoes held out to her as though in offering, feeling stupid and flustered.

"Here," he mumbled.

She reached out to touch them and looked up at him questioningly. Before he could think of what to say, she seemed to reconsider and pulled back her hand, her expression suddenly suspicious.

"What do you want from me, Pharaoh?"

"Nothing." he said, quite sincerely. "You just said…I thought it would be useful if you were able to walk with more ease. Besides, they are just taking up room and are of no use to me."

Still, she kept her hands pressed to her chest, curling around the edge of her towel. She even took a step back as though to return to her cushion, or if her face predicted anything, under his bed. He sighed. Throwing propriety to the wind he placed the strange shoes on the floor before her.

"You may take them or refuse them. They'll stay here until you decide."

And with that, he left to change into the dry kilt. She purposefully kept her eyes to the floor as he peeled off the wet kilt behind the pseudo-screen next to the chest. When he came back out she was crouched on the floor, poking at them.

"If you're wondering if I hid scorpions in them I can assure you I did not. If I had wanted to kill you, you would know."

Oddly enough, this gave her courage enough to pick up the shoes and pull out the strange, woven sacks within them. She smiled at them.

"You kept the socks too?"

"Is that what those are?"

Satisfied, she took the shoes with her back to her cushion, where she proceeded to peel off her wet bandages. Warmth filled his chest at her acceptance and the happy smile on her face gave him a sense of accomplishment. After finding her a new, dry dress and commanding her to change into it, she took her precious shoes and the cloth behind the tapestry by the Bastet statue to change—again showing her strange, over-done modesty. He couldn't help but roll his eyes. And yet…and yet…

Ra…he must love this girl.

But what good did that do if she still hated him so much?


	6. A Forbidden Memory

**Wow, what a week. Wait...it's only Tuesday. Aw man!**

Chapter 6: A Forbidden Memory

The morning came muggy and grey. Yugi nuzzled his face deeper into his blanket, half-consciously assuming that the lack of light meant it was still too early to be awake. Besides him on the floor, Aleah too was merely a lump of blanket.

'Abiou…'

A corporeal hand brushed back his bangs. Yugi scrunched up his face.

'Not now, Yami. It's too early.' he mentally groaned.

'Please. I…I need to know at least my name.'

'Oh, I didn't ask about that. I'm sorry.'

'It is all right, little one. You were enjoying yourself. I will just…just sleep a bit more. Besides, I might not want to know all my memories, if I am as horrible as it seems.'

Yugi sighed through his nose. 'Yami, you are not evil. Didn't you listen to _all_ that she said?'

'But she hates me.' The words rung through Yugi's mind with a ring of pain. He longed to reach out and embrace the spirit, suddenly feeling quite ashamed for all the time he had wasted chatting with Aleah about himself—let alone all the other useless trivia they had talked about. Like the future of the next ten years.

'Yami…I don't think so.'

'Did you not listen to her?'

'Didn't you? I think she loved you, and that's why she was hurt.'

'Key word there, abiou. Loved.'

'Oh, Yami—'

"Is it still raining?" asked a groggy voice.

Prying through sticky eyelids, Yugi peered out at the lump of blankets lying beside him. All he saw was a mess of curly blond hair nesting somewhere near the top of the cocoon. He glanced up at the window, but all he could see was soggy grey.

"I can't really tell." he said. "My, this weather is really strange."

"No kidding. You did say that it wasn't suppose to rain all week, right?"

"Yeah."

"Jeez, I really hope this has nothing to do with me." The last of her sentence came out muffled as she yawned and he could spy a bit of her pale forehead peeking above the blanket. "Dang, I feel sore."

He grinned shyly. "Me too. I guess that's what we get for sleeping on the floor, right?"

"I thought all Japanese people slept on the floor anyways."

Yugi snorted. "Where did you get that idea?"

'She always did have the strangest ideas about people.' he heard Yami mutter across their link.

'What do you mean by that?' he thought back.

"Well, they always did in the animes."

Yugi raised an eyebrow, though he knew she couldn't see it. "I do not live in an anime."

"I don't know," she said, at last poking her sleepy eyes above the brim of her blanket cocoon. "You have the eyes for it. All big and shiny and purple. They're cute. Too cute, just like in an anime. You did say that's your natural eye color, right?"

He was busy hiding his blush when he responded, "I'm pretty sure."

"And you call yourself Japanese." she snorted and retreated back into the warmth of her pod.

In the quiet, Yami finally found his time to answer, 'I'm not sure what I meant by that. I just…felt annoyed, for some reason.'

Yami's voice reminded him.

"Um…Aleah?"

"Mmph?"

"I don't mean to bring up bad memories, but…do remember what Yami's name was?"

"The pharaoh's?"

"Yeah." Though who else he could be talking about, he didn't know.

There was a long pause filled by the stuffed, sleepy sort of silence in the room. The blankets across from him wiggled a bit. He could once more feel Yami's anticipation gripping him from within the puzzle.

"I mean, if it's too much of me to ask—"

"No. It's fine, Yugi. But why doesn't he remember who he is anyways? What reason for that could that be?"

"We aren't really sure yet."

There was another space of quiet filled by the hum of Yami's presence. The blanket fidgeted again and her blue eyes reappeared.

"Yugi…what happened to the pharaoh? After I left."

"I don't know. What was happening before?"

Aleah shifted onto her side to look up at the ceiling. "There was this crazy looking thief guy setting his monster out on everyone. It was super powerful and no one's monsters seem to be able to fight against it. I think the thief wanted to destroy them for destroying his people…because they were used to make the millennium pieces. I left on one of the few peaceful nights, when I saw that light burning in the sky."

Yugi felt his forehead crumple. Within him, Yami was hanging on to every word, and if the spirit had a breath, it would have been held.

"Wow, that's…that's more than I know, I have to admit. All I know is that Yami had to seal away the Shadow Games because they were threatening the world. We're not entirely sure how he did it, but I think that's how he ended up in the puzzle. I think."

He watched her face as it remained still in thought. A flicker of emotion passed across her eyes, but at the angle he was at he couldn't be sure of what it was. She sighed.

"Well…I wouldn't have been any help anyways." she turned her head to look at him. "I guess you wouldn't know how he sealed away these games, would you? And why would they result in him losing his memory?" her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. "Did you know that Egyptians believe that if you ever lose your name, you lose yourself?"

He stopped himself from rolling his eyes. "Doesn't every culture believe that? Names are important."

"Yes, but…if he lost his name, that would make sense why he lost his memories."

"Are you sure it's not the other way around? He lost his name because he lost his memories?"

"Oh…yeah." her cheeks reddened. "I just…I don't really know what's—okay, well, his name—"

A door banged from downstairs, followed by a loud yelp. The two teenagers shot up, bursting from their blankets.

"Grandpa!"

"What was that?"

Yugi was the first to run out the door, followed closely behind by a frazzled looking Aleah who raced him down the stairs. They leapt over the short couch and slid into the shop portion of the house, panting. Solomon Motou leaned against the counter with a hand to his mouth, looking frightfully pale.

"Grandpa?" Yugi cried, looking about frantically for the source. He found it, standing in front of the now cracked glass door.

Seto Kaiba: dressed smartly in his usual suit-like trench coat and with blood in his eyes.

"Where is she, old man?" he growled.

"Kaiba?" Yugi could understand his grandfather's pallor. After being put into the hospital by the slightly crazed CEO, seeing him like this again didn't help the memories. Not to mention the shattering crash of the door had even scared the crap out of him. Yugi found himself in one of his rare moments of annoyance. "You didn't have to break the door."

"It's the wind, Motou. Do you really think me so childish?" he growled, turning on him, but froze at the sight of Aleah.

"You!" he cried, pointing an angry finger at her. "You're the one who has been messing with my technology."

She gaped at him, looking somewhat alarmed. "What are you talking about? I don't even know you."

"I don't care. You're coming with me and you're going to—"

And suddenly the shelf next to him turned into a stone statue of a cat-like idol, leaving the merchandise to shower upon him. Needless to say, Kaiba toppled to the floor. Yugi gasped and rushed over as Aleah and Solomon stared.

"Kaiba! Are you okay?"

"Damn it!" Kaiba cried. "I've had enough of this!"

"It's the Bastet statue." said Aleah, a hand to her mouth.

"My-my merchandise." croaked Yugi's grandpa.

With a flurry of crackling game boxes, Seto Kaiba was back to his feet and breathing hard. Taking a deep breath, he straightened his sleeves and composed himself.

"Now that I've found you," he said in his usual cool tone, "what's your stupid purpose for sabotaging my company with these inane pranks? Do you have a biff with me, my father, one of my employers? If so, I've had enough of your petty games and there's no escaping for you now."

Aleah scowled. "I don't even freaking know you, didn't you hear me? Though," she cocked her head to the side. "You do look an awful lot like Set, in a weird Japanesy sort of way…"

"Set? Close enough—"

"No." she lifted a finger. "Set was the vizier to the pharaoh, not your pasty ass."

Just as Kaiba was losing his cool, the battered shop bell tinkled faintly as another person stepped through the door, bringing with them a gust of wind.

"Good job, Kaiba. Unfortunately, we are too late."

Closing the door behind him, a tall Egyptian man dressed from head to foot in white linen robes stepped into the shop.

Yugi was starting to get a very bad feeling about all this. Shadi only came with warnings, and usually trouble followed after him.

He, however, didn't start nearly as bad as Aleah.

"You!" she cried. "How did—you're suppose to be—"

"Dead?" his face remained impassive.

"Something like that."

"Well, I am not. I am the same as you, now, and am untouched by time. That said, you do not belong here. You don't belong anywhere, but, especially not here. You haven't told the Pharaoh of his name yet, have you?"

She looked back at Yugi uncertainly. "I don't…think so."

"At least we have that. Come with me."

"No, wait," she held her hands together tightly. "What do you mean I don't belong anywhere? Look, I'm sorry for messing up, I did try to just go home—"

"But apparently you do not have the focus." he snapped, "I thought I told you to focus on home and only on home. What you thought of that brought you here is beyond me, but you shouldn't even be able to function after a tear up like that. Do you know what happens when one breaks their focus in the warp field? Their mind is torn between thoughts and time and they can lose their very minds."

Aleah shuddered. Yugi bit his lip, for Shadi didn't know how close to that Aleah had gotten, or the state they had found her in. At the moment, though, his usually blank face was rather annoyed.

"Silly girl," he said, "now stop asking questions and leave the chosen one at once. You are a danger to this time. You've already disrupted their destinies."

Out of the side of his vision he could see the girl start to shake. Her face was pale as grandpa's now.

"But-but where will I go? You already said I don't belong anywhere."

"You will go home, at best, until you can figure out a purpose for yourself." his eyes narrowed. "And maybe, just perhaps, the damage you have caused will be repairable."

In the face of the shaking girl and angry, spirit-like Egyptian, even Kaiba had fallen silent, watching the two carefully. Unawares to them the statue of Bastet had reverted back to the bookshelf. Solomon had yet to gather the courage to creep out and clean up the fallen games.

Yugi couldn't read or fully understand the devastation on her face, but something larger than him and protective rose up like a dragon within him. Suddenly not caring what damage Shadi meant, he stepped in front of her and set his eyes solidly on the Egyptian.

"Let her stay. And if she needs to keep the Pharaoh's name a secret, she can do that. But don't make her leave until she is ready."

Shadi's narrowed eyes fell on him. "Step back, boy. I respect your place as the Pharaoh's vessel, but you know not of which you speak of."

"Then enlighten me! What damage has she done?"

"By existing where she should not have."

"How? Are you saying she was never meant to live?"

"I did not say that."

"Then how can she exist where she shouldn't?"

"I do not have to explain to you."

"You do," and as Yugi spoke he could feel Yami rising up within him, melding together with him in purpose. He could feel the puzzle warming against his chest and Yami pressing against his mind till their thoughts were one. They glared out at Shadi. "Because I am Pharaoh, and I cannot let you accuse this innocent girl and demean her very existence without a good reason. She has done nothing wrong so far, according to my knowledge."

Shadi's visage changed at the sight of the Pharaoh staring out from Yugi's eyes. Even Seto Kaiba changed his stance, becoming straighter and his eyes brighter. The air in the room became charged with some unnamed energy.

And Aleah had gone completely still.

"What is going on Shadi? I do not appreciate your ambiguity." he growled.

Shadi fell to the ground. "Forgive me, my Pharaoh, I am only trying to protect you."

"Then inform me how you intend to do such."

"You must know, Pharaoh, I cannot tell you all for fear of the enemies ears on your own commands."

"I'm sure you can give me the gist."

"This girl, you grace, is a being born to exist as most mortals do not. She is meant to live outside the usual flow of time, able to affect and change it, much as I do. I, however, have found my place as guardian of the millennium items and I protect the way things must be. She, however, is naïve and foolhardy and may have very well ruined the time continuum by living in the time of much chaos, where the world nearly met its end. In a time where you lived, my Pharaoh, and because of that her knowledge could destroy what you worked so hard to prepare for, since she is out of reach of the curse."

"What curse?"

"I'm afraid, my Pharaoh, that is one thing I cannot tell you. It is something you must learn for yourself. For the safety of our world, your grace."

Yugi felt himself grow frustrated. "I take it this has something to do with my lost name."

"Yes, your grace. And if she is to tell you what she knows before you are properly ready for what is the come with that, the world may face its end."

Now Yugi could feel Yami's ire rising as well. "Let me decide that for myself."

A small voice came up from behind him, almost inaudible in its meekness.

"Please…leave him be. He's right. I…I don't belong. I never have."

They, Yugi and Yami, turned to find Aleah with her head bowed, looking smaller than Yugi thought possible. A word from a distant pass crossed through Yami's mind. _So fragile…she had always seemed so fragile._

"She is right, your Pharaoh." and Shadi lifted his head. "She will only bring about events you are not ready for. She will only, forgive me, get in the way. She did in the past, and she will now, because she was never made to exist in this time."

Yugi whirled on Shadi. "And what about you? You said you were the same as her. Why, then, are you here? Haven't you affected our timeline more than anyone else?"

A cool hand came to his shoulder. Within him Yugi could feel Yami seize up at the touch, as though it were a power he could not deny. He could feel Aleah right behind him and her voice cracked as she spoke.

"Pharaoh, Yugi, I've caused enough problems. I should leave."

And before Yugi could decide whether to feel pity for her sad form or anger for the careless Shadi, she stepped up and towards the Egyptian, who stood as she approached. His millennium key glimmered in the grey light of the stormy day. She kept her white head bowed.

But…Yugi just couldn't understand. How could someone so beautiful, fun, friendly, and kind not have an existence? How would she get in the way? In his heart he couldn't grasp how someone like Aleah, who felt so right next to him on the floor of his room, didn't belong anywhere.

He could feel Yami as well, who was just as conflicted, though for different reasons. Somewhere, deep within the puzzle, a door cracked open the smallest inch.

"Wait," he said.

Shadi returned his gaze to him, but Aleah did not look back.

"I knew her name. How could I know her name but not my own?"

"Forgive me, your grace, but I do not understand."

"How can she not belong if I can remember her, but not myself?"

Shadi merely blinked. "She was in the past, your majesty. You knew her once."

"I know, but…I don't remember anyone else. I don't remember anything. So why do I remember her name?"

"Perhaps, my Pharaoh, it is just a sign of the disruption she has caused to the normal flow of things." he bowed low. "I will take my leave now, if you are not opposed to it. I wish you the best of luck."

The store bell tinkled feebly as Shadi and Aleah disappeared in a gust of wind. Once the door closed, Seto folded his arms and began to chuckle.

"Always such drama with you, Motou. I meant to take her to the police, but I just got too carried away by the entertainment."

"I'm not in the mood for your antics, Kaiba."

Solomon, however, simply buried his face in his hands.

"What a poor girl." he murmured.

"Well, since I have no other reason to be here," Kaiba brushed off his front and moved to the door.

"One last thing."

Kaiba paused and turned to Yugi, still looking somewhat amused.

"What did you mean by she was sabotaging you technology?"

He gestured to the newly restored shelf. "Exactly what happened here. I had a mainframe, several monitors, and who the hell knows what else turned into random Egyptian antiques."

And with his usual lack of polite farewells, the CEO left with another tinkle of the bell.

'Do you think that sort of stuffs happened all over the city?' Yugi thought towards Yami.

'Only one way to find out, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was just here and Kaiba's. We tend to run into unreasonable madness like that.'

With a glow of the puzzle Yami fell into the background and Yugi stepped up to main control.

"Grandpa, I have something I need to look up real quick. Is that okay?"

"Sure." he said weakly. "I'll just…clean all this up."

And without really hearing what his grandfather said, Yugi dashed back upstairs and into room where a rather chunky looking desktop waited on his desk.

#%$^&*%$##$%%*%$ *^&$%

The night was young and glimmered in at him through his balcony. Firelight flickered warm and orange across the walls, shifting the shadows playfully. He could barely swallow dinner after the defeat of so many of his priests and the sacrilege of his father's tomb. But now that was over, the night was his own. Feeling overly relaxed from the drink, he lounged across the cushions about the brazier, fingering the medallion around his neck. As his troubles rose to the surface of his consciousness, he wished the alcohol was stronger.

Aleah sat silently in her corner. Though the chains were gone (she mostly wore the chains for the court's peace of mind), her head was still bowed. It made his heart cringe oddly to see her so plaintive, for it reminded him of the days of her silence and apathy. The emotion burning in his chest urged him to go to her or at least show her some attention, but Set's words still wrung about his chest. She was a foreigner. She was a slave. And she seemed to want to disappear into the walls.

Pouring himself another cup, he gave an exasperated sigh. To the underworld with this.

"Aleah?"

He expected her to look up at him and brazenly meet his eyes as she always did, but she did not. In fact, she didn't even move.

"Aleah, are you going to sit there all night?"

"If that is what your highness wishes."

He prickled. He knew that voice. Osiris damn it, he knew it and hated it. He made a noise of frustration.

"What is it?"

"What, your grace?"

"I know that voice. You're burying yourself deep in your mind. What brought this on?"

"Why does it matter to your greatness, if I may be _so_ bold to ask?"

"Because it's annoying."

"Excuse me, your highness."

Then she fell silent again. He growled to himself. He wouldn't have peace until he at least knew why she was acting that way. Fine, if she was going to play the passive part, he'd play his.

"That was not a request. That was a command."

To his satisfaction, he thought he could hear a bite of anger as she answered.

"Set, your vizier, your grace. He reminded me of my place…and how I don't like it."

"Naturally. I wouldn't think most slaves enjoy being what they are." he took a sip of the wine.

"And reminds me why I hate…"she stopped with a snap of teeth.

He fingered his cup, feeling a sinking sensation within him. "Let me guess. It's why you hate me?"

Her silence was enough answer for him. He considered the rippling surface of the dark wine. The quiet was soft and comfortable, edged with only the gentle noises of leaves and various insects outside. The fire crackled and popped now and then.

A soft murmur came from her corner, almost too quiet to hear from his place.

"Sometimes I've thought…to ask you to just kill me…to just end it so maybe I can wake up from all this and…and go home…"

His hand clenched tightly about the cup. That was it, then. There could be no question about it.

"Very well. You're not a slave."

Now she finally stared at him, blue eyes wide.

"What?"

"You heard me. You're not a slave anymore. I am Pharaoh, what I say is law. I'll have it written in the records tomorrow." He took another comforting sip of his drink. As he lowered it he could see her blinking in wild confusion.

"But…but then what am I?"

"Well, what do you want to be?"

She gawked at him. "I-I-I don't understand."

"What is there to not understand?"

"You! I don't understand you!" she tugged at a piece of her hair and looked away. "I mean, for the first few weeks you'd practically scream at me if I acted above my station. Now you're so…so nice and talking to me like a normal person and I don't understand what happened. Did I do something?"

He simply shrugged, heart in his throat. "I guess you could say that." He waved a hand to the cushions opposite of him. "Care to sit with me?"

Her gaze narrowed. "Depends. What are you drinking?"

"Just some wine."

"The kind with alcohol?"

"I presumed so." He sniffed at it. "At least, that's what I hope it is. Ra, what I wouldn't give to be drunk now."

She cocked her head at him, something he was coming to endear. "Why's that?"

In answer he groaned and let his head fall back on the backrest of cushions. He heard her walk over on her bare feet, having tucked her precious shoes beneath her cushion, and slip down on the pillows a bit away from him. She said nothing, but he could feel the expectation, however patient, hovering in the air. He slid his hand down his face.

"I never knew my father was involved in such darkness. I'm not sure what to do with the King of Thieves, for I believe he deserves his vengeance for the massacre of his people, criminals or not. And then my uncle…he's up to something. I can see it in his eyes. There's a darkness there. And then Set is uppity and all my priests are looking to me for answers, but…I really don't know what to do. I feel like I'm surrounded on all sides. And in the end my people will probably receive the worst of it, which I just cannot stand. I'd die to fix all this, if dying could do anything. But even with the god monsters on my hands…" He took in a deep breath and lifted his head to take another deep swallow of the wine.

"Set was right, then."

Atem let his head tip over to give her a questioning look.

"In what?"

"That you…that you care very deeply, maybe even too much so."

He snorted. "Did you think I was an egotistical, arrogant bastard? Because you were right, I am."

But she smiled knowingly, and he felt his stomach flip-flop within him. The warmth he had been trying so hard to ignore that day constricted his chest once more, filling him with the urge to reach for her and touch her in some way. Aggravated with himself, he tipped his head back and finished what was left in the cup.

"It will be all right, Pharaoh."

"Call me Atem." he grumbled. "And how do you know? Why would the gods assist _me_, who am the prodigy of such darkness? Even this…this damn puzzle," at this Yami tore off the puzzle, "this is blood magic. I should have nothing to do with it. Yet we all cling to our items like the cowards we are." He dropped the puzzle in his lap, grabbed for the bottle again and poured it clumsily into his cup. His hand had begun to shake. After another swallow he took a deep breath and forced it still. A few moments later he could feel her eyes on him.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

"Well," she said cautiously, "I've never noticed it before, but you have…a rather nice face."

"In nice face I hope you mean attractive or handsome. I would loath to discover men of your time with faces such as mine are considered womanly."

She smiled in amusement. "No, it would be considered a nice face in my time too."

"Tell me," he said, suddenly quite curious, "just how different is your time from mine anyways?"

"Oh gosh, very different. For one we don't need horses anymore. Now if anyone has horses they keep them mostly as a hobby, not out of necessity."

"What? Have you found a better animal?"

"No. We don't even use animals anymore."

Whatever he had been expecting, this wasn't it.

"But, how do you plow your fields? How do you get anywhere? Do you walk? Do those shoes of yours give your people extra endurance or strength?"

"No! We use machines. They're run by these things called engines which are made of many moving, metal parts that use explosions to get everything moving."

"Explosions?" he thought for a moment, tapping into his puzzle to try and understand. The images that flashed through his mind, however, baffled him. "The gods must have bemused the minds of your people."

"Not really. Though…I guess you'd think that way, especially since we zoom around in cars at 90 miles per hour on a daily basis."

At first, he didn't understand. When he once more tapped into his puzzle to translate what was a 'miles per hour' and then just how fast that was, he choked on the wine he had just been about to swallow.

"W-wait." He wheezed. "Are you saying that…" he did a quick calculation in his head. "That these…things of yours could travel from Thebes to Memphis in a matter of hours?"

"Oh yeah." She said, nodding, her demeanor completely nonchalant. She stopped nodding for a moment. "Where's Memphis again? I know this is Thebes, but…"

"It's by the delta."

"Then yeah! I think our plane landed somewhere around there when my classmates and I got here. We had to take a bus ride to reach the temple sites here and I think it only took a few hours. It seemed a lot longer with Leah prattling to me about her boyfriend." she rolled her eyes. "I swear that girl knows nothing of the troubles in this world. A nuke could pulverize the town next over and she'd just twist her hair and wonder if it would make her miss her show." Aleah blinked, then looked at him uncertainly. "You didn't get at thing of that, did you?"

His automatic response was to nod, but he stopped himself mid drop of his chin and shook his head. He put the cup of wine back down on the table.

"Care to explain? We're not going anywhere anytime soon."

She thought for a moment, then gave him a hesitant smile.

"Well, first off a plane is one of those metal contraptions that we use to travel, except in these one's we fly rather than go along the ground."

He felt his jaw drop and his eyes pop. "F-fly? Did I hear you correctly? And you are certain there are is no magic in your time?"

And with that they started a long dialogue deep into the night with Aleah telling him the stuff of dreams. Flying men, tools that gave blind and deaf men the ability to see and hear, strange glass and metal machines that made reality and fantasy not so different anymore, and huge glass portals that allowed you to watch an event happening on the other side of the world as it was happening—without magic. By the time her voice grew hoarse and she gave a great yawn, Atem had never felt less tired in his entire life. His mind whirled with the impossibility of it all and the fight to try and understand how it could be. By Ra, what would the gods give man in the next few thousand years that made these sort of things possible? With magic, maybe, but without it? And with Atlantis and its technologies little more than a fairytale?

His bottle of wine sat forgotten next to the fire, along with his still half full cup.

"If your people are so advanced, why do they do such barbaric things as allow their women into war or leave their women to fend for themselves and their children?"

She shrugged. "I guess it depends on your perspective. To them, allowing women to do anything and everything is advanced and humane—allowing freedom they say."

He grimaced, raising an eyebrow and wondering if this was one of her sarcastic jokes on him. "But that makes no sense. It is not maat. All have their role, man and woman. If one were to try to take the role of the other there would be imbalance, one would be overwhelmed as they tried to do everything and the other would be forced out of the picture." he paused. "Is that why your father left you and your mother? Did your mother make it so? Did she begin to crowd him out?"

She sighed. "I don't know. It's just…I don't know what went on. I know you're really curious right now, but would it be all right with you if I went to bed? I can hardly keep my eyes open."

And Atem could see the truth of that. Her eyelids dropped and she had sagged ever closer to him. He was half tempted to tell her no and keep her talking both for the sake of his curiosity as well as to see if she would slip further and fall upon his lap. But as her head bobbed, he softened.

"Of course." he gestured to his own bed. "If you like you may sleep on my bed. There is room enough for the both of us."

She stiffened at this, blinking hard to rid the sleepiness from her eyes.

"Atem…" then she reconsidered. "No, I'll sleep on my cushion. It isn't right for me to sleep in your bed."

"Is this a custom of your people?"

She rolled her eyes. "I figured this would be something that is the same in all cultures."

As she moved to get up he took her arm, smiling at her gently.

"It is all right. You are no longer a slave, if station is what you are concerned about. I would be pleased to share anything with you, even if…" he hesitated. Was he ready to promise that piece of him? Was he ready to say he'd be willing to share his kingdom with her? As his Queen?

She looked exasperated. "It's not that, Atem. Come on, piece it together." She suddenly blushed. "You…you said you liked me the other day, didn't you? Well, what do you get when you have a guy and a woman he's rather fond of in the same bed? I'm not stupid."

"Well then," his smile turned wry, "if you are worried about any intimacy happening, just marry me."

At this she violently yanked her arm away and took a step back. "Don't joke with me, Pharaoh." For a moment he thought he saw a flash of ice in her eyes.

"Pharaoh does not joke." And now no trace of a smile was on his face. He was serious. Yes, he had said it without thinking, but he had realized in a split second what he wanted. It seemed the natural course that if he wanted her, he should marry her. He didn't know what would happen with his country like this, however. None of his people were in the state for a royal marriage, especially with Shadow Games shooting overhead. But perhaps afterwards? If there was an afterwards…but, just maybe, having her agree to marry him would be nearly as good as the actual marriage. It would mean she had accepted him and possibly be willing to love him in return.

But her face had gone blank and cool.

"Even if I did love you, I wouldn't marry a Pharaoh."

He winced, drawing away from her. What an odd thing to say. Marriage to the Pharaoh was the highest privilege any woman could ever dream for. "Do your people hate my kind?"

"This has nothing to do with what my people think of Egypt. I wouldn't be able to handle watching you pick up concubines and other wives." And almost as though to prove her point, she shuddered. "Nor do I want to return home one day to come back to my parents pregnant or leaving behind children. No…I can't marry at all. I don't belong here."

"But Aleah," he had to stop the desperate sinking sensation that wanted to pull him under, "What if you never return home? You'll be alone for the rest of your life! With me I can give you a family, I will love you—"

"Along with woman A, B, and C—"

"No!" and now he was on his feet with her. "Aleah, my father only had one wife. It is the Royal Wife who chooses the other women anyways. If you want, I will only be yours for as long as we live."

"Don't you already have a hoard of concubines hiding away somewhere?"

He made a face. "What? No! Is this some strange impression you've gotten from your own time? Have you seen any other women?"

For a moment she ogled at him, seeming to falter in her determination. She brought a hand to her mouth, and then looked away.

"Please…just…leave me alone." she gave him her back and made her way to her cushion.

"What? Aleah, I am serious!" he moved as if to follow her, but thought twice. Did she want his touch right now? What was she thinking? If she doubted his love he'd be more than happy to prove it. He never thought, as Pharaoh, he would have to fight for any woman. But that was part of the reason he had to have her. She would be a prize—proof that he was something more than Pharaoh.

"Atem, you don't want me that badly. Please, forget about all this. I'm not worth it. I don't belong here. And…and I'm too afraid. Please don't ask this of me." She curled up on the cushion, her back to him, and her hair sprawled across its blue, silken cover.

He brought his hand back from reaching for her and clenched it at his side. He was risking too much this time with Aleah…was he?

"Aleah, do not suppose you know my feelings better than I. But I will not force this upon you. Forget that I said anything."

And with that, he made his way to his bed and slipped underneath the blankets. The fire crackled in the quiet as the distant voices of men sounded in the background. Thinking on this he reminded himself of his appointment to visit Isis in the morning and send his prayers to Ra for his people, as well as visit the tower where his friend's tablet resided for his insights on the situation. Hopefully, the next day would keep him busy from thinking too much about anything else. Despite his busy mind and his heavy mood, exhaustion eventually had its way with him and he slipped into a dreamless sleep.

He awoke quite abruptly, though deliriously, to a weight appearing next to him and warmth pressed against his chest. The body was shivering. The fire in the brazier had burn out a while ago to embers and he couldn't see a thing. But he instantly registered the sweet scent of Aleah and hesitantly put an arm around her.

"Aleah?"

She shook her head, continuing to shiver. An almost inaudible whimper escaped her. Sighing sleepily, he buried his face in her hair. Perhaps this was a dream. If she weren't so miserable, he'd like this dream. How had he ever forgotten how warm and heavenly soft she felt against him?

"Ah, Aleah, what is wrong?"

"I-I'm sorry for waking you…I just was cold and…" she took a shuddering breath. "I'm so lonely. Please, don't leave me alone because I said I wouldn't marry you. I don't want to be alone anymore."

He could feel her body shudder with the muffled sobs. She was trying so hard to hide it. Melting at the small, vulnerable voice, he held her tighter. So fragile…

"Of course I won't." he murmured.

"I've always wanted to get away from home, but not like this. I'm sorry for being cold towards you. Please, don't hate me."

"I could never hate you. Calm yourself. I am here. You're not alone."

She took more ragged breaths, fighting to quell her weeping in hopes he wouldn't notice. He pulled back enough to wipe the wetness off her cheeks and run a hand through her hair.

"And do not fear, I shall not cross any physical line you do not wish me to. I love you."

She made a strange noise between a laugh and a sob.

"I don't understand you. What did I do to suddenly change your attitude towards me so much? What is there to love about me? I thought you were a bit of a prick at times, but I never thought you were crazy. No offense."

He put his face back into that beautiful, silk mane. "I'm not sure myself. I think you always held my attentions, but I started to notice it when you burnt your hands to save that child in the fire while I was distracted by battle. It told me you had a kind, selfless heart who wasn't afraid of pain. But I should have known at least that, by now, with your mad dash across the rocks barefoot like that, with those soft feet of yours." He made an amused 'hmmph' in his throat. "Perhaps I am, as you said, 'crazy'. What a peculiar word. And I would like to note that I was never a prick, whatever that is."

"Of course, of course. The Great Pharaoh is only ever magnanimous and right in all he does."

"Precisely."

To his faint surprise and pleasure, she snuggled deeper into his embrace, tucking her head into the curve of his neck. As her soft, long lashes graced along his throat he felt a heat ripple through his body till he was sure he'd overheat her. He suddenly felt that he couldn't have her close enough to his bare chest and had urges to feel more of her than he should, but he kept still. He had given her his word.

"Thank you," she breathed, and even her breath smelled of that sweet, exotic scent of hers. "I'll do whatever I can to help you with what is happening. I don't know what I can do, but I do know some things from the future. You're not alone…okay?"

He made a noise in his throat to show he heard her as he awkwardly reached down behind her and pulled the blanket up around her. She didn't even flinch as he had to lean over her, and her trust constricted his throat and made the passions kept in check inside him burn with a rush of protectiveness. Nothing would harm her this night. Not even the cold.

Carefully and cautiously, he kissed her on the forehead.

"Sleep well. If you want to go back to your cushion just tell me. I will accept it if you have to wake me."

She nodded against his collarbone. The movement made her hair move against his skin and he had to restrain a shudder at the feel. "Thank you."

He settled in about her. "You're welcome."

And with a final pop of the embers and filled with happy contentment, Atem fell back to sleep, the foreign girl from the future still curled in his arms.

Yet unbeknownst to him, the next night, after a day of losing his friend to the shadow realm and fighting against the king of thieves, the girl in his arms would leave him for the light in the sky that summoned her home.

For now they slept on, watched by eyes that didn't belong to any time, filled with hate. Dark hands slipped from the window and their owner slipped down into the darkness of the night


	7. Never Meant, But Was

**Six fish fillets. Ate one, typed some more, looked back, three fish fillets were gone. Where did they go?**

**...husband. T.T**

Chapter 7: Never Meant, But Was

Joey came an hour afterwards, babbling apologies for not coming the day before to get their things. Apparently, the storm had been heavier than ever in their part of the world and Tristan couldn't make it due to he was stuck at home with his sick nephew while his sister went out on a spontaneous business trip. He had asked Joey to get his camping gear for him, which he had agreed with no little complaining.

"Damn, the weather's just gett'n worse." he said as he stepped into his friend's room where Yugi sat at his computer. He didn't even give a sign that he noticed him. Smirking, Joey sidled over.

"What you looking at buddy? A nude-y movie?"

"Joey, I'm trying to read."

"What you reading then?" and not bothering to hear if he had an answer or not, the blond read over his shoulder. His eyes widened.

"Oh yeah, I was going to tell you about that."

"Huh?"

Joey pointed to the screen where a picture of a half-faded pyramid was shown, with the other half of it a tall, national monument.

"Tristan said he saw that this morning. I thought he was just looking for an excuse to get out of baby duty, claiming he was seeing things and all."

"Nope. That's real. And it's been happening ever since Aleah got here."

"Aleah? Is that the girl's name then? Speaking of which, where is she?"

Yugi didn't answer right away. Though Joey could be more oblivious than most, when it came to his best friend this was less often the case. His mouth thinned as Yugi continued to stare at the picture of the half-formed pyramid on the screen. Even he could tell his friend was thinking very, very deeply.

Unseen by him, Yami hovered nearby, expression a mirror of his hikari's concentrated expression. A hint of unease could be seen in the tense way he held his regale posture.

"She's gone, ain't she?"

"If you must know, yes." At last, Yugi turned to look at his friend. "But something feels awfully off here."

"No kidding. It's been storming for days!"

"Not just that, but Shadi was acting very peculiar."

"Shadi? You mean that weird robbed guy who turned the professor into a zombie?"

"He was the one who came to get Aleah." Yugi looked down at his hands, which were clenched. "He said she didn't belong anywhere. That her mere existence was going to ruin everything, if it hadn't already."

Joey let out a low whistle as he sat himself on Yugi's bed and folded his arms behind his bed. "A little harsh for him, don't you think? Then again, can't really say I know the dude."

"My thoughts exactly," he said, "though Shadi usually comes with somewhat dire prophetics, he seemed different this time. Fearful almost."

"Fearful?" Joey gave the spiked head boy a hard look. "Yug, I've only met that guy maybe, what, twice? He's always seemed a rock to me. Are you sure you didn't see things? Isn't he just a spirit?"

"I guess, but like you said, we really can't say we know him."

Yugi turned back to the page and scrolled down the page. Another picture of an old, stone world style plow where an ATM should have stood showed up. "Not to mention these strange shifts have been happening all over the city, but I can't find any link between any of them, and…Gah! I just don't know. I'm no research genius like Kaiba. But bow could Aleah cause all this?"

Joey shrugged. "Frankly, Yug, I've stopped trying to make logic out of half the crap that happens to us. Like that whole…whatever that was with Dartz. We freaking pulled swords out of dragons' heads in our sleeps and floated around like…like—"

"But still! I just have an off feeling about all this. Shadi didn't even sound a little curious as to why Aleah is the only thing Yami can remotely remember from his past."

With a flinch Joey lost balance and had to undo his arms behind his head to hold himself up. "Woa, wait, hold that thought, are you saying that young pretty thing is…was—dude, if she's from the same time Yami is from, she's gotta be—you can't be serious—"

Yugi typed in a quick keyword into the search bar and sighed. "She's not a spirit, Joey. She's actually from the future. Eight years from the future." Yugi froze, hit by a sudden idea. "Joey, how old would you say Aleah is?"

"I don't know. Seventeen? Eighteen at most?"

'She's sixteen.' murmured Yami from besides him. Yugi didn't question his darker half, but quickly did the math in his head.

"Kaiba was after her." he said. "He was the one who found her. If she's right and she's only from the year 2016—" his eyes went wide. "Another Aleah is alive in America, maybe even in North Dakota. If that's the case, how was Kaiba able to find her here and not where she really is?"

Joey just gaped at his friend. Without really meaning to put thought into it, he said, "Well, one is eight and the other is sixteen, maybe he wasn't looking for a kid." He scratched his head. "Man, this all sounds so weird."

Yugi bit his lip and erased what he had written in the tool bar. Instead, he wrote in her name. Right as he clicked enter he realized there was no way for him to track down a little eight year old in America. Eight year olds didn't even have online records, did they?

He thought hard through their mind link to Yami. 'Why did it sound like Shadi had to enlist Kaiba to find her? He never had a problem finding people before, as far as I know. He was just so…'

'Spirit like?' said Yami wryly. 'Yes. I know what you are feeling, little one. Something is indeed not right. I too have the feeling we did something wrong in letting her out of our sight. It doesn't help that we know next to nothing about an already mysterious man.'

Then, quite suddenly, Yugi found himself no longer staring at a computer screen, but his windowsill. Feeling as though a rug had been pulled out beneath him, he looked down at his hands still frozen in mid-type. Where the computer had once been, a beautiful blue cloak lay folded upon the desk.

Three sets of eyes stared at it. Yami moved to brush his incorporeal hand over it, a confused look in his eye. Yugi reached out to touch it as well to feel soft, almost silk-like cotton. Then, almost as soon as it had happened, Yugi's fingers were pressing against the cool glass of a very confused computer screen.

"Oh man, I'm losing it." said Joey, pushing himself to the back of the bed.

"If Shadi's taken her to her own time," said Yugi slowly, "why are these things still happening?"

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure things randomly changing into other stuff isn't good." Joey's teeth were on end.

'Maybe there's a connection to the things that are appearing,' murmured Yami. 'An ice staff, chains, a statue of Bastet, and now the cloak. They're seeming more familiar by the hour.' He closed his eyes, looking frustrated. 'If only she had told me my name. I don't care what consequences it would've brought, I hate feeling so blind.'

The three sat in silence only broken by the occasional question from Joey which they answered in small sentences. The computer lay momentarily forgotten, though Yugi stared hard at it as he thought.

At last, Yugi hung his head in his hands.

"Maybe Shadi is right." he said lowly. "Maybe Aleah existing in our time stream where she shouldn't have is screwing everything up. I just can't understand anyone not having a purpose—not suppose to exist. It didn't feel like she was, well, existence-less or anything."

"Well, Yug, you can't tell everything just by feeling it out." Joey propped himself onto his elbow. "I mean, maybe he is right. Personally, I think Kaiba would kill to be her."

Yugi thought this the strangest thing to say and gave his friend a look that told him so. Joey just shrugged.

"He's always going on about how he makes his own destiny and doesn't give a crap about his purpose or what's in store for him. So far, I think he's done a pretty good job at avoiding it. Remember when he dueled Isis with that fortune telling necklace of hers?"

Both the small boy and his invisible yami looked at the yank lounging on the bed. Joey probably didn't realize the depth of the question he had brought up. Was one really obligued to fulfill their destinies? Did fate really have as much control over their lives as they thought? Kaiba certainly didn't think so.

Another cry came from down stairs and everyone flinched. Yugi leapt to his feet, alarmed. What could have startled his grandfather this time?

"What was that?" asked Joey.

Before Yugi could untangle himself from his chair, the door burst open and Tea stumbled in, her pants completely wet and her hair haggard. There were circles under her eyes. Everyone was too shocked to even exclaim at her state.

"That white girl," she panted, "I found her."

"What do you mean?" asked Yugi, feeling his heart leap with Yami as he pressed in closer in excitement.

"In-In the museum. I found her by his—this weird tablet. That Ishtar lady pointed it to me and translated it for me." Looking faint she sunk to her knees. "Oh, Yugi. I think she might be connected to the past—like you and Seto. I-I-I don't know—"

Of course, Yugi thought with a droop in his chest. Tea couldn't have known Aleah was gone.

"Damn, Tea, take a breather. You look like you're about to pass out." said Joey. "Now, what was that you said?"

"That white girl. I found traces of her in the museum along with Seto and the Nameless Pharaoh." Finally noticing something amiss, she glanced about her. "Where is she anyways?"

"She…left." said Yugi impatiently. "What did you learn?"

Tea looked away bashfully, "Um…well…it's really iffy. That woman spoke of her like she didn't mean much. She says she was a slave the Nameless Pharaoh doted on until she mysteriously vanished before the fall of the Shadow Games. Apparently she never thought it was important to tell us of her because it had nothing to do with Yugi's destiny or the problems at hand. She was just some random tidbit of the pharaoh's private life that, frankly, wasn't any of our business." She blew away her bangs. "But I insisted. It was just too weird."

Yami drifted closer to Yugi. 'Perhaps it would be in our best interest to investigate this. Besides, if anyone can give us a glimpse into the past, it is the holder of the millennium necklace.'

Yugi nodded. "I'm checking this out."

"Me too!" cried Joey as he scooted off the bed. "I know an adventure when I see one!"

"You guys better hurry, then," and she looked at her watch as she said this. "The museum closes in about two hours and it's all the way across the city."

"It's already that late!"

"Yeah, Yug, where you been?" said Joey.

"Never mind that, come on!"

With that Yami vanished back into the puzzle and the two boys barreled out of the room, followed by an exasperated Tea.

"Oh, come on! I haven't even caught my breath yet!"

#$%&%$#$ !#$%&^%$#! #$^%$# !

Atem staggered into the stables with his foaming horse. The stable hands, alarmed at seeing their pharaoh in such a state, rushed to his side to take the horse off his hands and flutter like concerned pigeons about his form.

"Leave me be." he growled.

This only earned him a few more feet of breathing room, but he was able to stumble back out into the sunlight. He fell against a stone wall of the stables and slid down the hot stones.

"Mahado…" the thin wall of numbness surrounding the hole within him trembled. He put a hand to his sweating face. How had he let this happened? How could he have left his friend to fight on his own?

Suddenly, all he wanted was her. He wanted Aleah. He wanted to run to her and bury his face into her soft whiteness like a child. Mahado was gone, merged with a shadow beast, to forever live in the Shadow Realm, because Atem hadn't been enough. He could command gods—he was a god! And yet…and yet he still had not been enough.

His small moment of quiet was short lived as the stable hands came out all a fluttering once more. He quickly got back to his feet, even though his knees trembled.

"Your majesty, please, you need help—"

"I said leave me be!"

That quieted the flock. They all blinked at him with their wide black eyes. He didn't want black. He wanted blue—blue as the sky where the kings dwelled.

He pushed off the wall and stumbled towards the palace, peeling off jewelry as he went. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve any of this. He probably looked like a freaking peacock in it all anyways, flushing up his feathers when in reality he was very, very small and powerless.

Aleah. He had to get to Aleah. He needed her.

Set ran to him followed by panic stricken guard's as he stepped into the palace.

"Your grace!" he cried. "What has happened? And wha—" he chocked mid-sentence as Atem tore off his cape. But as all eyes fell with the purple cloth, the Pharaoh looked up into viziers eyes, as though lost.

"What am I doing wearing this…this…augh…" he tore at his hair. "Set, Mahado, I couldn't save him. What is wrong with me? Why am I so-"

"Pharaoh," said Set quickly, "we don't have time for you to lose it. You need to stay strong. If what you say is true, the bandit may be advancing."

Atem wagged his head. "No. I can't do it. You be pharaoh."

The taller man scowled heavily. "I refuse."

"Set—"

"No, Atem. I will pick up your job because you're scared. Pick yourself off of the ground. You're embarrassing yourself."

The two guards flanking the vizier gawked at the man's audacity. He might as well slapped the pharaoh in the face. By the way Atem looked up at him, he might as well have. His eyes were wide in shock.

Set folded his arms and set his leveled gaze on him. Waiting.

Atem didn't scream. He didn't roar like he would've used to. Instead, he slowly got up and set his uncertain gaze at his vizier. Set nodded, as though approving.

"Now, forgive me, but may I inquire what you meant by Mahado?"

The pharaoh took a shaking breath and looked down. "Just as I said, Set. He's gone. He met up with the thief king on his own and I didn't reach him in time. As a last ditch effort to protect me, he combined himself with his favorite monster. He's part of the Shadow Realm now."

The frown on the tall man's face was deeper than ever. He gave a brief nod and looked to one of the guards.

"Report this to the other high priests. They'll be wanting to know."

The guard saluted, still a bit shaken by the vizier's blunt chastisement of god Pharaoh, and ran off. The second guard looked at the two of them uncertainly.

"And you," Set said, "I need you to—"

Atem raised a hand, stopping him. He leveled his gaze on the man.

"Fetch me Aleah. The…white foreigner."

The guard gave him a peculiar look. "The slave, your grace?"

Atem hesitated. He had yet to fix that. "That will do."

With a quick bow, that guard too fled. The pharaoh and his vizier stood alone in the hall, the sun leaning towards the horizon in the distance. Set's expression softened and he put a hand to the still slumped pharaoh.

"I'm sorry about that, your grace."

He shrugged. "It's all right, friend. I needed that. You're right, I can't just drop everything and run away."

Set gave his shoulder a squeeze. "We will be victorious, my pharaoh. No petty criminal can match the power of the gods."

"But that's just the thing. That creature of his can absorb anything, and every time we beat it down it seems to find another way up. Besides," Atem looked up, his eyes narrowing. "I sense something darker behind the bandit's movements. There's something a lot bigger going on here. Something I can feel in my bones, and it's…it's a lot bigger than me."

"Pharaoh, many things are a lot bigger than you."

Atem gave him a weak grin. "I could have you demoted for that."

"Ah, but you like me too much."

Chuckling, he pushed his advisor's hand off his shoulder. "Very well. But Isis would be very displeased to hear of this."

Set rolled his eyes. "Just go and clean yourself up with that slave of yours. We should meet again tonight. The others should have reports by now and we need to figure out our next move, your grace."

"Fine, fine. Just don't mention Aleah, okay? I've tried too hard to keep her out of this."

"I still don't see why. If she is from the future—"

"Yes, yes, I know your theory. But…" Atem trembled and looked back behind him where the afternoon sun sat low in the sky, making the Nile glow white hot. "I don't know what I would do if she were to be hurt."

Set searched his friend's face carefully. He folded back an arm to caress the golden rod at his belt in thought. "I do not think she's as fragile as you think, your grace."And with a wry smile, he added. "I saw what she did for that child. If she feels she needs to do something, she does it without hesitation, no matter what is in her path. Perhaps you can take a leaf from her book."

"Goodness, Set. Was that a compliment for a foreigner I just heard now?"

"You didn't hear it from me, your grace."

"Dare I say it was anyone else?"

"Dare you say it was me?"

Atem smiled and picked up his cape off the floor. "Like I said, if Isis ever knew. I'll be going now. Go make yourself useful."

Set bowed. "As I ever do, my pharaoh."

He wondered in the direction of his chambers. The guard would be fetching Aleah from the kitchens, where he had sent her for the day. It seemed safer down there, rather than up high in the balcony where his enemies could spy her. Besides, he had wanted to help her figure out what she wanted to be, now that she wasn't a slave, and she had always been curious of went on in the kitchens. He had taught her enough words to follow very simple commands, but other than that her and Diseam, the cook, mainly worked off of a sign language of sorts.

It wasn't till he reached his chambers did a sense of something ill come upon him. The door was slightly ajar. Motioning to the guards who always stood outside his room, he opened the doors.

"Check for intruders. Quickly." he said, and the two men scattered about the room, hands to hilts at their waists. Untied curtains across the balcony fluttered in a faint breeze. He stayed put, looking about sharply. Nothing looked out of place. But it wasn't like he memorized where everything was before he left in the morning.

"Nothing, sir. We even checked behind the tapestry and down at the spring. If someone were in here they would have had to climb through the balcony, your grace, for we saw no one entering or leaving."

Atem nodded. "Return to your posts."

But even when the guards were gone, a chill crawled up his spin. Something happened here. Even as he sniffed the air he thought he could smell the residue of something familiar. Magic maybe? But he knew that magic. Tapping into his puzzle, he gave the room his own search, but still nothing.

_Well, whatever it was,_ he thought, _it's gone now._

"Pharaoh?"

Atem turned, an excited jump to his heart. Standing in front of closing doors was Aleah, petite, white, and beautiful as always. Without waiting for another word or even caring how she would take it, he closed the space between them and drew her close to him. She felt warm and soft as always and he took comfort in her scent. He buried one of his hands into her silk-like hair and let out one last tremulous shudder of despair. But everything would be okay, now.

It took him nearly a full minute to realize something was not right. She felt too stif, too still in his arms. He pulled back to find her pale, almost grey. Startled, he brought her to arms length.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

Her lips trembled with unspoken words. Then, she looked down.

"Nothing."

There was a coolness to her voice that made him tremble. Not again.

"What did I do?"

"Nothing."

"Then did someone else do something? Tell me who it was and I'll kill him with my bare hands!"

"No one did anything. I just…didn't you need me for something?"

"Don't try to distract me. Something is wrong."

She shrugged and brushed of his hands, still with that distant coolness. "I'll be fine. Can't I have any privacy?"

"But, Aleah—"

"Please?"

In that one word the coolness cracked and for a moment he saw a fraction of her, a hurting piece of her, that disturbed him. He longed to just have it out of her—to know what was wrong so he could fix it and make at least one thing in his life well. But under her pleading expression, he bit his lip.

"Very well." he sighed. "I guess I really am useless, huh?"

She seemed to falter beneath the look he gave her. "What's happened to make you say that."

He sighed and lifted a hand to his eyes. "I'd rather not think about it until I have to." Then, hesitating, he offered the hand to her. "Would you…would you be willing to…"

She cocked her head. "Willing to what?"

"To…spend some time with me? We don't have to do anything. I just want…I just want to be near you. I…" he gulped. "I need you. I…"

Then, to his utmost horror, his voice cracked as tears brimmed his eyes. For a moment she looked equally surprised, and he thought for a moment she seemed to forget about whatever was troubling her. Without another word she took his wrist and gently led him to her very own cushion, which she had moved in front of the balcony. He sat down gratefully to hide his face as a tear finally escaped. She came back with a game board. She must have known it was his favorite.

"Will this work?"

He took the game board from her and considered it. Then, he set it aside, and pulled her into his lap to bury his face into her shoulder. He couldn't stop from shaking. Eventually she wrapped her arms about his head and sighed into his ear.

"Oh, Atem."

And she too began to silently weep. Whether for him or for her own troubles, he didn't know, but it made him cling to her harder. Who was he kidding. Even with her here, nothing was well. Mahado was as good as dead, Mana was missing, half the city of Thebes was demolished by the bandits damn monster, and in the chamber where he had lost his friend to his magician he could feel that this was only the beginning. Another darkness waited to make itself known and he felt too inept to face it.

And now something had hurt Aleah deeply. More deeply than he wanted to know, by the sounds of her quiet sobs. He hated how she shivered against him. So fragile. So very fragile.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, "I'm sorry. For whatever happened to you. And especially if it was because of me."

Because somehow, he knew, he must have done something stupid to cause this.

Time flew on gilded wings and soon sunset fell on the two of them. By the time Set came to fetch the Pharaoh for the meeting between the priests it was to find the pharaoh and his slave curled up in each other's arms on the floor, fast asleep. Softening at the sight, his vizier thought it best to leave his liege to his peace and left to meet the other priests on his own. He could tell them of Mahado's end. The details could wait. Servants came with armfuls of Atem's shed jewelry, newly polished, and quietly placed them back into their appropriate spots.

Nobody expected the pale girl to wake in the night and see a light only she could see shining in amongst the stars. And when the time came that she made her decision to flee back home, only the pharaoh followed, pleading for her to reconsider. But she had been hurt beyond repair by something only she seemed to know.

Stone gods watched as she vanished into the night, hair fluffed about her shoulders like wings, and the mighty god pharaoh put his face to the cold floor to weep.


	8. Envy of the Outcast

**I finally got pants that fit me. O.O my maternity pants keep falling off my butt while I'm walking and my pre-pregnancy pants are too tight (because your hips widen so you can birth a baby). So I've given up, taken the hour long drive to get to the closest mall, and got myself pants that FIT! **

**I was quite surprised. Had to go to the junior section to find them. I didn't think I was that small. The curvaceous women were giving me insulted looks when I asked them where I could find size such and such. (How dare you ask us where you can find such a petite size over here in the WOMANS section, you little girl!)**

**My butt is happy.**

Chapter 8: Envy of the Outcast

Ms. Ishtar's blue eyes contrasted brightly against her cinnamon Egyptian skin. They were staring at the panting group of teenagers, bemused.

"You're lucky I'm here," she said, "I don't live in the museum, you know. What is so urgent?"

"White slave," panted Tea, "I need you to tell Yugi all you know about the white slave of the pharaoh's."

The Egyptian woman did not appear pleased. "What has that to do with you?"

"We think she's here!" protested Yugi. "The white girl—she time traveled!"

She pursed her lips in annoyance. "I never knew you to be the kind to make such farfetched assumptions, Yugi. You don't even know what she looks like."

"But the pharaoh remembers her!" cried Joey.

Now they had her attention.

"He remembers her?" she blinked. "And he says this girl you've met is her?"

"More or less." said Yugi.

She considered this for a moment, arms folded. Then, she finally shook her head.

"That's very strange. Does the pharaoh remember anything else?"

"No, miss. Just her name and age a few random bits about her."

She asked a few more well placed question before sadly shaking her head.

"I always was confused about the mentioning of time rather than her name, but even if it is her returned back to her home, I don't see what good it can do you. It is probably best that you do not pursue her. After all," she gave Yugi a pitying look. "The pharaoh is dead."

"That's not the point!" he said, and with that he delved into explaining about Shadi strange (or at least stranger), behavior and how he claimed that Aleah was never meant to be. He talked about the shifting items phenomenon and how Shadi sait it to be the young woman's fault messing up their timeline. Ms. Ishtar listened attentively. She too shared that some lights in her studio had randomly switched into wax candles and back, and agreed it was all very strange.

When the three of them had given all that they knew concerning Aleah, excluding Tea who hardly knew anything about the situation, Ms. Ishtar still shook her head.

"There's not much I have to tell about this girl, or her place in all this. She was very mysterious. The pharaoh made sure to keep her out of any spotlight and in the end she just…vanished, just as mysteriously as she came. I thought of her more of a myth than any real person."

Yugi visibly wilted. She smiled at him, however, and brushed her fingers against a display case as a few last visitors walked by.

"Have you even thought to ask the millennium necklace I gave to you? It is what can answer your questions."

"That thing is so fickle. It's only worked, what, once now? Twice? I don't really even think of it as an asset anymore."

"And it will always be that way to you until you understand time properly and the way it flows."

To this, he perked up once more. Joey gave her an incredulous look.

"This sounds like it's border'n the edges of something philosophical." he twisted a finger in his ear. "Let me know when you two are done, I'm gonna go check out some things."

"Oh no, you don't!" And Tea grabbed onto his retreating collar. "We are going to learn all we can so we can help out Yugi in this, aren't we?"

"But I don't even know what for!" protested Joey, "So the girl doesn't belong here. Not nothing I should mess with."

"But the pharaoh remembers her!"

"Well, if I had a girlfriend that pretty I'd remember her too!"

Yugi sighed heavily. "You were saying? About time?"

The Egyptian woman looked bewildered at his friends before turning her attention back to him. She looked uncertain for a moment.

"Time is something you understand with your senses, or as my brother would say, your gut feelings. It isn't something I can so easily explain. I can say that there is one thing I think peculiar about Shadi's purpose. Time is not something that is easily denied by anyone. Every living creature is affected by the flow of time in one way or another. The ability to travel through time is simply a gifted awareness. I do not think that just because the girl can see when these opportunities arise that she is automatically exempt from time and has no purpose." She looked at the display case and at the cracking mud statues inside. "Change is not bad. Even if it's a change in the future. Whether we want it that way or not is up to us, and our choice. Because in the end, we always have our choices. One girl giving new information should not change that." She looked back to Yugi, her eyes hard. "Nothing can change our power of choice. Kaiba has taught me that."

"Then what about destiny?" asked Tea. "And fate?"

She nearly smirked at this. "Well, if you know someone well, can't you predict how they will react to a set of choices? Perhaps destiny is what we are intended for, and fate is the prediction made by some intelligence we do not yet know who simply knows us very well."

There was a contemplative pause at this—and a confused one on Joey's part. Before he could open up his mouth and give the first blank note of his question, Yugi spoke up.

"And knowing this, or understanding time—will that help me use the necklace?"

"Understanding what I've said can help, but time is something to be understood by instinct, not by logic."

Yugi's mouth twitched. "The pharaoh isn't going to like that."

Tea looked down at her watch and squeaked. "Oh gosh, I have to get home for dinner. It's the one thing my mom's anal about."

"And it's about time we close." The Egyptian bowed. "It was a pleasure seeing you again, Yugi and friends."

"No! The pleasure is ours! We did load you with a lot of questions."

"Oh, come on guys, I'm starving. Can we go already?"

"Joey! Have a little decorum!"

"She knows I'm grateful. Don't you, Ms. Ishtar?"

She smiled. "Yes, and I can understand the distractions of an empty stomach."

With that they parted. In the front of the museum Tea gave a quick goodbye for running off in the opposite direction. Joey and Yugi huddled at the bus stop as the wind began to blow, icy and cold. Joey rubbed his arms furiously.

"Damn, this weather is so weird."

"You can say that again."

"They predicted sunshine! With record breaking highs! And it's freaking May!"

"It feels more like February." said Yugi through chattering teeth. He tightened his rain coat tighter around himself. A part of him wished that Aleah was still at home, waiting for him so he could curl up in blankets with her again and talk of all this weird timey wimey stuff and whatever else came to mind. An ache throbbed in his chest. Too late, it seeped through the mind link before Yugi could have the present of thought to block it.

Yami floated into the cold air besides him. "What is wrong, abiou?"

Yugi shivered and made sure to think his words so as to not freak Joey out. 'Nothing. I'm just cold.'

"No. You are sad. I know what I felt."

He hesitated, but realized there was no escape. 'I was just thinking about Aleah. I miss her. She was…fun to talk to.'

He could feel the spirit's eyes examining him closely and feel his probing at the edges of his mind. Before he could think of a way to change the subject, Yami floated in front of him, his expression serious, if not even more so than it usually was.

"Do you care for her, Yugi?"

'Of course I do! I thought we could've been friends.'

"You know what I mean."

To this, the smaller boy fell silent. What was he suppose to say to Yami of all people? That he felt affection towards the girl who had once been his yami's lover? Which probably had been only days ago for her, though it had been thousands of years for him? Even then, how could he feel such feelings for someone he had only met a few days ago? No. It wasn't worth risking it. Blocking up every corner of his thoughts, he took a deep breath.

'Of course not, Yami. I've only known her for a few days.'

Still, the spirit watched him carefully. He could feel the probing against his thoughts again and knew the pharaoh sensed his resistance. His expression fell uncertainly.

"Yugi…"

"Hey, Yug! Snap out of it, the bus is here!"

Brushing past Yami's spiritual form, he stepped up after his friend, dumped some change into the fee box, and curled up next to a window near the back to watch as rain began to fall.

!$*^%^ $!$##%^&*(*%! #$^**^%

The rain poured. Shivering in the chill of the room, she brushed her fingers against the grimy window pane. While she should have been suspicious that Shadi chose to stash her away in the office of some abandoned warehouse, it's not like she, who did not belong, should have expected a fine hotel room or even an apartment. And she had to hide somewhere until another rip in time opened. At least it was dry, though she admitted this skeptically as she listened to the water from the roof patter into buckets and trays behind her.

Besides, she kind of liked it this way: alone, watching the sky bawl on the earth. It was peaceful. At least she belonged with herself. At least she had the rain and this room for shelter. She could believe anything she wanted here and no one would be the wiser.

Adjusting the shirt and shorts she still wore, Aleah stood from the lone chair of the room and searched around for blankets of any sorts. She could wind herself up in a quilt and pretend she was back with Yugi, looking up at the rain and talking of adventures. Trying to ignore her shivering, she stepped about buckets. She dared to open the lone door (she hadn't opened it before in fear of spiders), to find a dirty, small half bathroom, but no blankets. After a full ten minutes of searching she found a dusty box filled with some moth eaten curtains. They were the most garish orange imaginable, but they were large and thick, and she was grateful. Pushing aside the chair, she curled up on the floor in the musty curtains and looked back up at the rain.

What would she say if she were just Aleah? Not some strange time traveler, but just a girl. She only knew Yugi for a few days, but she had never met anyone so open, so innocent, and so kind, and she had given her trust to him easily. He probably didn't know what a relief it was to her to finally trust after so long of treading about an ancient culture and king she did not know. So, smiling through her chattering teeth, she closed her eyes and imagined him there. Yugi would never hurt her. He could come into her lonely sanctuary.

"Thank you," she said, "for standing up to him. For trying to make a spot for me. But, I guess that doesn't matter now. How was your day? Did you hear about that skyscraper that turned into a pyramid? I hope the people inside are okay."

She imagined a smile on his round face and the twinkle in his eye, and when he opened his mouth she could hear the kindness, just not the words. She had, after all, only known him for a few days. Her eyes burned at the silence. She sniffed.

The quiet could be so scary. Because that's when _he_ came, uncaring to her wishes that he stay far, far away from her thoughts. It surprised her to no end how alike Yugi looked to Atem—almost as though he could've been the pharaoh's little brother, but nothing more. Yugi was soft, gentle, with wide, open eyes. Atem was sharp, commanding, confident, and his own features guarded well when he faced down his enemies. He had been guarded to her as well, at first. But, of course, the man must've had a weakness for women she hadn't seen, huh?

"Liar." she breathed, watching her breath rise in the air. "Bastard. Horny jerk."

But calling him such would never make him such. No matter how hard she tried.

And that was the real problem.

Suddenly angry at herself, she tore at a piece of the curtain until she felt as though her fingernails would tear off. When had she allowed herself to let that…that _ass_ in? When had she started to ignore her common sense and listen to his mushy love words? Well, whatever the case, she didn't care. She didn't love him. She never had! She was smarter than that. So him with another woman shouldn't have bothered her, even if they were in such a compromising position…

Even as her chest tightened to the point she couldn't breathe, she clung tenaciously to her anger. By all that was holy, she wasn't heartbroken! She refused to be! She was just angry and disappointed at being lied at. After all the effort he made to convince her that he loved her, that he wanted her, that she could trust him, it was all just a ploy to add her to the collection. She should have known. Stupid, ancient, polygamous kings. She should be glad that she was out of there! All that was there were horny men, weak women, and stupid, lying, handsome kings.

But she could hear the lie in that. She knew that people were just people, no matter where they were. It was unfair of her to clump all the Egyptians together. It wasn't their fault that Atem had decided to play her.

Staring up at the rain, it took her a few minutes to realize tears were pouring down her face. Growling, she wiped at her cheeks with the harsh, dusty material of the curtain and tried to imagine Yugi there instead. Yugi, who she couldn't imagine ever betraying her. He would've been the friend she needed. She would've had someone to finally talk to after months and months of bitter loneliness. He could understand her culture far better than Atem ever could, even if he did live on the other side of the globe. He didn't demand of her to act a certain way, he didn't put chains about her ankles whenever they were in public, and he wasn't a foolish, charismatic king. He was safe.

Yet it only dulled the pain. She still couldn't stop her tears.

"This all crap." she muttered. "Just a load of crap."

For deep within her, she knew why she had messed up going home. She hadn't kept her mind focused on only North Dakota. Even though Atem had carelessly used her, a piece of her had still hesitated on leaving. He had looked so pathetic begging on the ground like that. More importantly, he had looked more sincere and desperate than she had seen any man. But she was not so weak as to be manipulated! And yet…she had seen what she had seen. There could be no trick of the light in what she had seen him doing with another woman.

If only she could run. If only she could've gotten some good tenne shoes from Tea rather than these girly looking sandals. But should the opportunity arise, she would ditch them. Especially for weather like this. There was nothing like running in the rain with winds howling about you and thunder threatening to boom your body off the world and the cold staving off your sweat. Maybe she could cock open the window. She was far enough from Yugi and the others that she wouldn't cause any harm, right?

The door of the office opened with a quiet whistle. Among the many sounds of dripping and rain upon a tin roof came the quiet footsteps of Shadi.

"The time rift should come soon."

She rubbed the curtain roughly on her cheeks. Shadi was the last person she needed to see her crying.

"That's good." she mumbled.

There came a tinkling of cans. "I brought you some food."

"Thanks, though I don't see why you bothered."

"I am not a cruel man."

"I didn't say that."

Shadi crouched besides her in a pool of linen robes. In front of her he placed a few cans of fruit, some canned beans, and a few cans of various vegetable soups.

"I tried to get all the necessities. It wouldn't do for you to get a cold in this weather."

She snorted. "I have the immune system of a horse. I'd like to see a cold try."

To this, he gave her a dry look. "Oh really?"

"Yep. Haven't gotten sick for almost two years now."

"That just means you are overdue."

"Don't jinx me."

For the first time, the smallest hint of a grin came to the Egyptians face. After setting a can opener delicately on top of the cans, along with what looked like a second hand camp burner, he settled himself on the floor across from her, leaning against the wall with an almost inaudible groan. She watched him warily. She remembered Shadi as a member of the Pharaoh's high priests, but that didn't mean she knew him by any means, even if he had found her in secret to inform her of her place and her abilities to see and travel through the time rifts back then in Egypt. She had always supposed he was just one heck of a smart magician, like all the priests were. Now that he had finally revealed to be of the same kin of her, instead of making her relax, it made her more wary than ever.

"If…if you're the same as me, did you stumble upon ancient Egypt too? Or were you born somewhere else like me?"

Shadi didn't even bother to open his eyes. "I was born in ancient Egypt. But since then I have jumped through countless times. Although, it is too that land that I will ever have a kind of place I can call home. Sort of like this North Dakota is to you."

"But how did you know about time travel back then? How were you able to help me?" she considered the can of fruit cocktail skeptically before reaching out for it. The moment she popped the lid with the can opener, she realized what was missing.

But he was ahead of her and had a plastic spork held out to her as he spoke. "There is only ever one of me wherever I am, so sometimes I return to that time to replay my part, but only ever for a small time so I do not mess up the events."

She paused mid-stab for a piece of pineapple. "Huh. That would explain why you didn't even recognize me the next day. That must've been a different you. How…wait…" she hesitated, "But I'm alive in this time too. I'm just eight years old. Does that mean—"

He rolled his eyes. "You are over thinking this. The other you is all the way in North America. If you had known better how to control the time stream you would've come here as your eight year old self and in North America. Just another reason why you should leave."

This aggravated her. "I get the idea, you don't have to tell me twice."

"You do not belong—"

"Shut up. Please."

Finally, he pulled his turbaned head away from the wall to glare at her through his oddly pupil-less eyes. His eyes hadn't always looked like that, she noted. Once they had been warmer, more natural, more...alive.

"I remembered you being much sweeter."

"You would get mean if someone kept rubbing in your face that you're worthless too." With a growl she devoured several grapes and a cherry in one bite. As she chewed she muttered, "Something the dear old pharaoh seemed to never grasp."

"The pharaoh appreciated you far more than you deserved. You may have been a slave in title, but I've never known a slave of your temperament to be so well cared for."

She spat out a bit of corn syrup. "He had his reasons. Didn't change that I was still nothing."

Shadi considered her as she continued her can of fruit. It was the first time that day she had chosen to eat, and he presumed she should be ravenous, especially in this cold. Outside the storm gave an extra roar against the noisy metal walls of the warehouse. Slowly he started to bend forward. Instantly, she tensed.

"You keep that stupid key of yours away from my head." she snapped. She even stabbed the pointed end at the spork at him as though that could deter him.

But instead of reaching for his key, he reached for something on her face. She held absolutely still as his fingers brushed against her cheeks and below her eyes.

"You really shouldn't rub that awful material on your face when you cry. Your soft skin really can't take it."

She smacked his hand away. "Do you mind?" Then she froze. Shadi didn't look angry at her outburst. Instead he looked at her with a tenderness she hadn't thought possible from the emotionless rock. He pulled his hand back to examine his now wet fingertips.

Softly, barely more than a whisper, he asked, "You were thinking about the pharaoh before I came, weren't you?"

She did the only thing she knew to do then. She glared. "Why does it matter to you? I don't matter to his world, just like you. I can see in your eyes how you've disconnected yourself. The only reason you deal with Yugi and the others as I've heard is probably because they have to do with your precious Egypt and you've found a _role_ as you say."

But she faltered at the softening gaze of Shadi upon her. He drew up close to her, though he didn't dare the edge of her curtain shell, let alone her.

"He loved you, Aleah."

The words made her tremble. How dare he! How dare he even talk as though he knew better!

"Sure." she said, barely avoiding it coming out as a thick whine.

But he pressed on. "He truly did. He…he was never intimate with Isis. They only ever saw each other as comrades."

It felt like every bone in her body turned to lead while her muscles went ramrod straight, though she didn't move an inch. Instead, she turned her head.

"I don't care." she said, lowly enough that the rock in her throat wouldn't interfere. "Why should I care what was between him and Isis?"

"Because it obviously hurts you. You must have cared for him."

"That pompous ass? Ha."

"I know this isn't you. You aren't acting like yourself."

"And how the hell would you know? Why are you even still talking about things you don't even know about? Can you please talk about something else?"

There was a long silence that wore on her as though it had turned the air to stone. She could feel her insides trembling and her hands, so icy cold, sucking the heat from where she had stuffed them in the bends of her knees. She could feel her eyes burning and her chest constrict till she could barely breathe.

Finally, he spoke. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" she said none-too-kindly.

"For deceiving you. For hurting you. I had only hoped for the best, and…I admit, I had been terribly jealous."

This confused her. She finally looked back to see Shadi bent over his knees with his face in his hands. It looked very strange to see his long legs folded up against him like that. His stature was never made for such a position.

But she didn't say anything. She only looked at him. Finally, he took a shuddering breath.

"I know what you saw that broke your faith in Atem."

"How?" she was almost ready to be angry again.

"Because…I was the one who created that illusion with my millennium key. It wasn't him. The pharaoh was always too noble for anything like that. I was surprised how easily you accepted what you saw after all your experiences with the powers of our millennium items. Perhaps it is better that you left, because you were too ready to not trust him. There can be no love where there is not trust."

But Aleah was already on her feet with the ugly curtain in a dusty mess at her feet.

"You!...You!..." but she couldn't think of a profanity sick or violent enough to do him justice.

"I did it for the best. Your place wasn't there."

"_Who were you to decide that!?_"

"I knew how the time flow must happen. You were disrupting that. And…"

"Like _hell_ I was! What about you? Why the freak weren't you just blunt with me? How do you know I wouldn't have gone home without you scarring me for life—I mean, even if I did have feelings for him, you are such a pervert! That was awful!"

"I was just trying to make something effective, and I know how you Americans—"

"We're not all perverts! We don't all watch whatever YOU think we're watching! Gods, what is wrong with you?"

And now he was on his feet, his expression more sharp than ever.

"You weren't suppose to be attached to him. He was someone you were never meant to meet!"

"For the last time, who died and made you God!"

"I just didn't want to be alone anymore!"

Hearing something she wouldn't have usually heard from a man she had supposed didn't feel emotions shocked her into speechlessness. He took advantage of her silence to step over the dusty rim of her orange nest.

"You don't know for how long I have been alone, not belonging anywhere. I've only ever met two of my kind, and even then only once each. After decades of no one who could understand my pain, my agelessness, and then I found you on a trip to Egypt. You could be…you are…"

For a moment, she was afraid he would kiss her. She had never seen the priest this worked up. When his hand moved up she flinched horribly, but instead he brought it to his chest to twist his robes between his fingers.

"Please, Aleah, I am so sorry for what I did. But we are of the same kind. We are all we have. We may never meet another of our likeness again." his eyes were shifting from one of her eyes to the other. "When I realized you hadn't returned to your time, to your home, and that you could've been anywhere…"

"You know I would've still been on my school's student ambassador trip to Egypt, don't you?" she said flatly. "How did you find me anyways?"

"My first clue was the death of Yugi Motou…seven years previously, when I last knew him to live a long life into old age."

Goose bumps covered her body from the frigid weather of the warehouse. Her extremities had nearly lost feeling. But finally, her blood ran cold too.

She stumbled away from him, toppling over a bucket of rain water on the way. It splashed water all the way to her thigh.

"H-how do you know that was because of me?"

His eyes narrowed. "Think about it. If you had given the pharaoh his name before the time he was ready, the seal on Zorc would have broken and he would've faced a most powerful foe."

"Zorc? I'm guessing I left before that chapter."

"Indeed you did."

"A fat load of evil overlord, right?"

He gave her a confused look. "What?"

She shook her head. "Nevermind. I get the idea already. Thanks for the food."

He flinched and glared at her in disbelief. "Are you actually thinking to make me leave?"

"If you don't, I will." She set the bucket back up and grimaced when she noticed the water had reached some of her precious orange curtain. "And you wouldn't want me to get that lovely cold I've been waiting for so long for, would you?"

"I can get you blankets. Or you can even have my robes—"

"No thanks. I can take care of myself."

"But—"

"Shadi," she turned on him with a sharp glare, "you're not in the greatest position to be getting all close and fuzzy with me right now after what you just told me, if you get my gist. Let me know when the time rift is here. Other than that, I don't much feel like talking to you."

They glared at each other in turn. Finally, after a particularly loud howl of wind against the warehouse, he sighed.

"I am sorry for hurting you. I'll go fetch some blankets. The time rift should be at least another day or so."

And with that, Aleah found herself alone again, with her half eaten can of fruit on the floor. Without Shadi there to glare at she turned her glower to the fruit, as though the waterlogged grapes in there had somehow done her wrong as well. She had begun to tremble with more than cold, and she brought her folded hands to her chest in attempts to ward off the chill.

She suddenly missed the white-hot desert sun of Egypt.

"Am I really the kind of person," she said to the can, "who just get's in the way of everyone else's destiny and safety? Do I really have no place in this world? Even barely with my own family? Half the things Shadi say don't make sense…"

Another flash of lightening turned the office bone white. A roar of thunder rattled the walls.

She clenched her teeth as tears once more pour down her cheeks.

She couldn't take this anymore.

Tearing open the window, she climbed outside and relished the icy rain on her already freezing skin. Then, once she hit flat pavement, she tore off Tea's girly sandals and dashed off into the wild rage of the storm.


	9. The Questionable Depth of Agency

**I got this bellydance song stuck in my head that has a lot of 'um hmm' dunna na na dun dun dun na na naaaaah...oh wait, you can't hear that can you? That's probably the best.**

**Glorious pants!**

Chapter 9: The Questionable Depth of Agency

Water rippled past the bus window, warping the world outside to blotches of color and varying shades of grey. The heated interior of the bus was a blessed relief, even if it was crowded as always. Joey and Yugi had been lucky to get a seat period, let alone one in the back. They had also been lucky to get a bus right when it started to rain.

Yami floated in a small space next to the wall above him, trying to put himself in view of Yugi so he could see his concerned expression, because it was the best he could do with no corporeal body of his own.

"Please, talk to me." he was saying. "Let me in. This is unlike you, abiou."

But Yugi was all too happy to enjoy the poisonous thoughts within him alone, mostly because the logical, optimistic half of him was getting more and more exasperated by the minute by it. He was ashamed of himself. He would let Yami in when he had his dignity again.

"So, Yug,"

"Yeah?"

"I've noticed Tea's cheered up. Did you ever hear what was wrong?"

Yugi felt his teeth go on edge. Any normal guy wouldn't be so attentive to someone's changed mood. But Joey had always been hyper aware of what others were doing about him. It was part of the reason he got so quickly attracted to making Yugi 'a man' during their freshman year before they had ever thought of being friends.

He debated his answer. Joey _was_ his best friend. At the same time, he had the mouth the size of Niagara Falls when it came to keeping secrets. Yugi bit his lip.

"Well…it's because she liked this guy, you see."

"Why would liking a guy turn her into a freaking beast, though? I know women will always be a mystery to me, but I thought girls got all blushy and giggly when they liked guys, not tearing people's heads off."

"I think it's because the situation was rather complicated. If it was just a normal guy—"

"Woa, wait. I know where this is going. She fell in love with some old geezer, didn't she?"

"Gak! Why do you always have to suppose the worst!" Though there was some truth to that statement. Yami had to be at least four thousand years old.

The said old man watched Joey and Yugi from next to the window latch, his expression hard and arms folded.

Joey smirked and rubbed his nails on his jacket. "It's because people don't suppose the worst that the worst happens. Now, cough it up."

"What?"

"You know what. The juicyness. Who was Tea hang'n after?"

"No way! I was suppose to keep that a secret!"

"Said who?" muttered Yami. Yugi pretended not to hear the spirit.

"All the more reason to tell me! Come on, man, we're best buddies, aren't we?"

"Yes?"

"And best buddies tell each other everything, don't they?"

"That's true with girls and their friends, maybe."

"Are you calling me a girl?" there was both a hint of amusement and indignation in Joey's eye.

"No. I just don't want to tell you what I've sworn to keep secret. I shouldn't have said anything."

Then, quite unexpectantly, Joey fell silent. Yugi squirmed beneath his x-ray examination of him. Then his eyes fell on the golden puzzle around his neck and he held it. Joey could be oblivious just as much as the next idiot, but he wasn't the master duelist he was for nothing.

And Yugi could see an idea click.

"Wait a minute," his face cracked into an evil grin. "She went after the pharaoh, didn't she?"

"Yep." said Yami, even though Yugi was the only one who could hear him. The spirit than proceeded to roll his eyes at his hikari's reddening cheeks.

Joey hooted with laughter. "Oh hell, that had to have been awkward! I mean, you didn't switch over and do anything with her, or—" then his eyes widened at what he was saying and he changed to somber in a blink of an eye. "Oh crud, _awkward_. I thought you liked her and…aw man, you all right Yugi?"

"I'm fine." he said quickly.

"Aw man, that's just the most screwed up love triangle I've ever heard. Like something out of my sister's girly manga."

"Joey—"

"The girl you like favors your alter ego who in turn favors, what? Some slave girl who travels through time, maybe?"

"Joey, I'd stop while you're ahead."

A ding echoed across the bus along with the smoker voice of the bus driver announcing the stop. The bodies crowding the bus began to shift down the aisle like toothpicks in a dispenser. The tall teen got to his feet with pity in his eyes.

"You got some screwed up luck, Yug. If you want to, you know, go to the arcade sometime, just call me up. I hate being home as it is." It was Joey's way of saying he was there for him, whatever may happen.

Yugi pushed on a smile. "I know. If I have any plans I'll defiantly call you."

With that, Joey waved and was sucked through by the shifting column of people towards the door. A minute later, the bus gave a gasp of exhaust and crawled back onto the road. A middle aged man took up Joey's seat with his nose in a newspaper. On the front was the picture of the half pyramid, half skyscraper event. Rain pounded harder than ever on the roof.

Yami slipped in close to Yugi's other side, sitting through his backpack until it looked like it was simply sitting on his lap. His eyes held a softness that he only ever reserved for him.

"Abiou…"

He sighed and reluctantly thought. 'Yes?'

"I just want you to know that you are free to love whomever you please. It doesn't matter to me. I think you are worth any woman you set your eyes on."

'Yami, whatever you're thinking I'm upset about, you're wrong. It's just girls. There's half a billion of them in the world and I got more important things to worry about. Stop treating me like I'm some sappy character from a romance novel.'

He could feel the spirit prickle a bit at this. "I've never treated you as such. You are a strong and noble person. What I'm worried about is whether you know that yourself and your sense of self worth, not whether or not you can get a girlfriend."

'I'm sorry.' Though in reality he was regretting opening his mouth at all.

"I heard that, abiou. I'm glad you told me what you were feeling." Yami glanced out the window. "How about we get out for a bit before we head home? I think some fresh air might do you good."

"It's pouring!"

Without meaning to, Yugi had said it out loud, and the balding man next to him flinched. He blinked at him through his thick glasses as Yugi gave an apologetic smile. Snorting, the man turned back to his paper.

Yami was grinning.

"You know, most people would think you were insane."

'And you're dead, Yami. Do you have a point?'

"Ah, the point is yours."

Yugi found himself smiling. He didn't care what Yami brought with him, whether it was crazy evil villains, monsters, or beautiful girls who would always overlook him. He'd always bless the day the pharaoh came into his life. And even if the day came when the spirit had to leave him, he would always consider him his closest friend, more dearer than a brother.

Another ding and the gravelly voice of the driver came on the intercom. Yami fluttered up into the air as Yugi grabbed his backpack and the navy umbrella underneath it.

'Very well,' Yugi thought to him. 'You win. Let's go get a hot chocolate or something.'

It wasn't till Yugi was through the press of bodies and out beneath his umbrella in the downpour that Yami sidled up to him with a mischievous smirk.

"You know, one may call this a date, my abiou."

Yugi just raised his eyebrow and bothered to say out loud. "I didn't know you swung that way. Though I should have known with all that leather."

Yami threw his head back and laughed his bark like laugh as the rain poured through him. His sharp eyes sparkled as he came down to walk besides him.

"Only for you, little one. Only for you."

Yugi found himself laughing as well. "Tea would be jealous."

"Always!"

People ignored him seemingly talking to air as they hurried past. The city had turned into streams upon streams of umbrellas and thunder rumbled across the sky. Below them the sidewalk had been painted with rippling pools of grey. Though, despite the depressing color, Yugi liked it. The rain made him smile.

Up ahead he spotted a small coffee shop and made his way towards it. He hadn't taken even five steps when something white burst through the stream of umbrellas on the other side of the street: a girl, dressed in a simple blue t-shirt and shorts, who had apparently flung off her umbrella along with her shoes to run as fast as she could through the crowd. People cried out and yelled as they dodged to the side to avoid being hit.

Both Yugi and Yami froze. Blond curls stuck to her face and neck with rain, but she had yet to notice Yugi and his invisible companion.

Yami moved first, hand outstretched, with her name on his lips. The bonds of the puzzle pulled Yugi after him in a collision course towards the quickly approaching girl. Yugi couldn't help but notice she was going very, very fast, and that Yami was dragging him into the street.

_She can _run!

But his own breath caught up with him. She still hadn't seen them. Surely she was going to crash right into them. Cars honked and slammed on their breaks. Bicycles with their rain coated riders fumbled to change course.

"Aleah!" he cried.

Miraculously, out of the deluge of noise and the roar of the rain, she heard her name and stumbled to a stop to look wildly around for the speaker. Yami floated before her, his hands raised to touch her, to do something—but as Yugi came nearer he stepped away, utter confusion on his face. The last thing Yugi saw of him was his baffled, even dismayed expression before he vanished back into the puzzle for Yugi to stumble in front of her.

"Aleah!"

Her blue eyes shivered on him. From head to toe she was completely soaked and at first he thought she was too out of breath to speak to him. Then, to his confusion, she stepped away with a frightful look. But Yugi suddenly felt too happy to care. He had never known someone to have such an effect on him.

"Yugi?"

"What luck to find you here! Wow, you're soaked! You must be freezing! And what happened to your shoes?"

Knees trembling she turned from him. Instantly, Yugi had his hand around her wrist.

"Please, don't go. If you keep on like this you'll get sick."

"I-I can't be around you."

"I know, but…it's only telling me the pharaoh's name you've got to worry about, right? And you look in a state…"

Her wrist felt like ice in his hands and it trembled. He held to it tighter, though she had yet to make an attempt to break free from him. Scrambling for an excuse, he glanced back across the street to the coffee house.

"H-how about I get you a hot chocolate or a coffee? It will at least help you warm up. Then you can be on your way. Besides, I've been really worried about you, Aleah. I promise we won't talk about anything Egyptian or time, deal? Besides, it's got to be fate that we met up here, right?"

"I don't belong…"

"I think that's up to you."

Through rows of wet, curly hair, she looked back at him. Something glimmered deep within her gaze, as though she were desperate to believe him, thirsty for someone to speak such words. It made his insides ache with want to bring her to him—to wrap her up in warmth and give her whatever she wanted.

Was this how Yami had felt so many centuries ago?

Tremulously, she nodded and he did not hesitate to pull her under the umbrella and shrug off his rain coat. He handed it to her and she looked at it uncertainly

"Here. I hope it's not too small."

"You sure?"

"Course! Besides, I have dry clothes, unlike you."

"I…I like the rain." But she took it anyways. His stomach did a weird twisty loop inside him when she snuggled up into the fleece and smiled shyly at him past the collar.

"It fits just right." she said softly.

"Good! I kept it warm for you, then."

And before she could see the glamorous blush on his face for saying something so incredible cheesy and stupid—for saying a lot of cheesy and stupid things, he turned to make his way to the crosswalk, holding the umbrella above them. The tinkle of rain on the umbrella sounded like a downpour of thousands of glass beads or pebbles, and Yugi wasn't sure whether something awesome had happen, or if he had just made a horrible mistake.

Within the puzzle, Yami had fallen silent.

Inside the coffee shop the walls were painted in mellow reds and browns. Bossa jazz played over the speakers, and old black and white prints of famous photos covered the walls, including some workers on their lunch break sitting on a beam hundreds of stories in the air without anything in sight to catch them should they fall. Yugi could somehow relate to them as he led a shivering, wet Aleah to small table in the corner next to a heater. A few patrons looked up as they entered and gave her sympathetic looks.

She looked about her nervously as he got up to take a look at the menu, written next to the counter on an old black board.

"Do you know what you want?"

Suddenly, her stomach gave a loud gurgle. Eyes wide and face red, she tried not to meet his eyes. He chuckled.

"When was the last time you ate?"

"Well, I had a few pieces of fruit an hour ago…"

The silence at the end told him enough.

"They sell sandwiches here if you'd like me to get you one."

"I'll be fine." she muttered, still blushing. "You don't have to get me anything."

Rather than stand there and argue against this, he shrugged and ordered two hot chocolates and a large turkey chipotle sandwich—for himself, of course. He would just let it sit there between them until she gave in to its aroma and her empty stomach. If not, he loved turkey chipotle.

The hot chocolates were foaming with whip cream when he brought them over. He set one in front of her with a smile.

"I hope you're not lactose intolerant."

At first she only stared at the beverage, her hands suspended over the heater besides them, as though unable to comprehend what she was saying. Then, with a smile, she lifted the cup and took a tentative sip through the cold mound of whip cream.

"Thank you," she murmured.

"Your welcome."

She sipped at it to the sound of warm saxophones. He found himself staring and quickly looked away. The last thing he needed was for her to think he was a creep.

A thrumming, alto voice broke out through the sax. A table over the low voices of two scrawny men in biking shorts thrummed over to him, but not loud enough for him to make out the words over the quiet jazz.

Huh…now that he thought of it, he sort of liked this music. Not that he could understand the lyrics much, seeing they were in English, which he had never been very good at.

"You know, I really am a spoiled brat."

She was gazing into the depths of her drink. By now the whip cream had melted into the hot chocolate.

"In all regards, the pharaoh did treat me well. I could've had it so much worse. But instead I was too wrapped up in my homesickness and fear to be grateful." She fingered the foam of her cup. "And…well, I could say that's the story of this whole crazy fiasco. It could've been so much worse, but because I fell into the arms of kind people, I really am just fine. The worst I have is a few scars on my back, feet, and this green ring around my ankles that never want to leave." She chuckled dryly. "I guess it's to remind me of him so I can't run away from that, at least. That's why I wore chains anyways."

"Aleah," he said, "it's okay to be afraid and to just want to go home. You're lost in a way most people don't ever expect to be. It's okay to want to run away."

She shook her head. "No. I've been pathetic. I mean, I can time travel! I've met wonderful people! What is wrong with me. I've still…just look at me now. I've done it again. I've run away. And now Shadi is probably frantic to find me when all he's trying to do is help me get home."

Her bottom lip began to tremble. Blinking hard, she looked away as a black aproned waitress came over to set Yugi's sandwich on the table. He nudged it to the center with a smile.

"Now, I got this sandwich for me." he said gently, "so you're going to have to ask real nice if you want me to share. Turkey chipotle is my favorite." he waved the sandwich a bit just for good measure before picking it up and taking a bite.

When tear rolled down her face and she closed her eyes tight, he almost couldn't finish chewing.

"Aleah…" he murmured. Was this his fault?

"I don't understand." she said, her voice soft enough to sound solid. "He says we don't belong to any time. That we were never born with a destiny—never meant to exist. But…why were we born then? And does that mean that I won't belong at home either? That I'll always be alone and all ghosty like him?"

He dropped the sandwich back into the tray. Before he could think of what to say, Yami appeared hovering about her, his hands fluttering about her desperately. He looked up at Yugi in dismay.

"Do something." His voice had a strain Yugi had never heard before. "Please. I can't see her like this. Please, Yugi."

Yami was just the reminder to Yugi's conscience of how wrong this all was. What was he doing? She was Yami's, and yet Yami was dead and he was alive, and she was from the future, but…

Shaking the thought from his mind, he quickly swallowed.

"How do you know what Shadi says is true?"

She peered out at him through a frantic blinking. "Huh?"

"Shadi is a man like the rest of us. He isn't omniscient. Besides, if you were never meant to exist, why do you exist? You really shouldn't believe everything that's told to you." He scratched his nose and winced. "I learned that the hard way."

If anything, she looked confused. "But…I screw up how time lines are suppose to be. I screw up peoples destinies because I'm the outside factor. Doesn't that make me a stranger wherever I go?"

"Ironically, I was just talking to someone about that. She use to be the holder of the millennium necklace." At her widening eyes he smiled. "You recognize it then? Well, one time she was dueling a, er, friend of ours who believed that his future was what he made it. Of course, she could see the future and saw that he would lose the duel. But, at the last second of the turn that would make him lose, he changed his mind and his future abruptly changed. Needless to say, she was rather thrown when he won the duel when she had seen him losing."

"What are getting at with all this?"

"That we have a choice." He took a sip of his hot cocoa. "I mean, if you think about it, it doesn't make sense to have our whole lives planned out for us while making us receive consequences for our choices. Why even give us agency if we can't choose? And then punish us in the afterlife for being evil or good?" he gave her a weak smile. "I guess what I'm saying is, I disagree with Shadi. If you mess with people's destinies, they can still choose how they are going to react to you. For example, Yami was never meant to meet you, but," and at this, he looked down at his beverage, feeling something sticky and hot welling up inside his chest. "But he still loved you. I don't see how loving someone is bad or destructive. I mean, especially if it's being in love with someone like you."

Another jazz song ended on a throbbing note. Only the voices of the arguing bikers filled the silence.

"I'm just saying—" said one.

"Stop saying. You don't have anything backing you up, it's a stupid idea." said the other.

"It's just something you have to believe me on, okay? Besides, do you have any evidence on the contrary?"

This gave his friend pause.

Yugi looked up to see Yami crouched at the side of the shivering Aleah, a look in his eyes that made Yugi's heart jump to his throat. He knew the pharaoh could barely remember anything, but the way he looked at her was deeper than memories. His incorporeal hands wrapped about her knees, but for all Aleah knew, Yugi was looking at an empty space next to her.

Rather, she was looking intently at Yugi, a tender pleading in her eyes.

"But, Yugi…" her lips trembled worse than ever, "he said he found me here because when he went to my time to find me, you…you were dead when you weren't suppose to be. Seven years earlier, so sometime this year."

Whatever he had been expecting to hear from her, this wasn't it. Even Yami flinched and turned his attention to his smaller hikari, his eyes wide.

Yugi didn't answer right away. How could he? So he swirled around the remains of his whip cream while he thought of something to say to that.

Meanwhile, she went on, bordering on blubbering.

"He said—he said it was because I told you the pharaoh's name too early, and, but…Yugi, I don't want to be the reason you die. I may not know you very well, but…but you're the last person who deserves to die before his time. I don't want to change that destiny, because where's your choice in that?"

Yami opened his mouth to speak, but instead brought his pale hands to his face.

Seeing that was what Yugi needed.

"It's okay!" he said gently, "Jeez, I'm not dead yet. Besides, if that's the case, all you need to do is not tell me his name."

"What if I slip?"

"I'm pretty sure you won't. Besides, you don't have to stick around me. I just…you looked so cold and wet, it would've made me feel awful to leave you out there."

"I choose to be like that." she sniffed. "It was my own stupidity."

"Then let it be my own stupidity if I want to be around you, because I, for one, like that you exist. I want you to exist."

When her eyes looked rather surprised, he felt his face grow hot and he added a quick, "You've just been a really great friend, cause you see…well, I haven't really had anyone to talk to like that in a while. I guess my friends can't help but be caught up in the whole possessed by an ultra-cool-ultra-very-not-me spirit from ancient Egypt. But honestly, who'd blame them? I'm rather boring compared to Yami."

Now Yami was by his side, his arms wrapped around him. "Abiou, I was afraid of this." he whispered, as though someone else might hear.

Aleah, however, smiled at him in such a way he thought he could feel his breath catch. He hadn't expected something so soft and kind to come from her, let alone anyone. In that moment he could suddenly understand why she, of all the women Yami had ever met, had caught his attention. Somewhere, deep within her, was someone endlessly kind. Her look lacked pity, it lacked sympathy, and simply held compassion, which left him with his dignity. She sniffed.

"I think you are quite interesting," she pointed at the sandwich, "and I know you got that for me. How do you weird little Japanese kids get money anyways, if you aren't allowed to work and your parents are suppose to be stinges?"

Yugi laughed. "Oh man, you watch way too much anime."

"If it helps you feel any better, Shadi thought we Americans were all porn addicts."

He decided to take a sip of cocoa at the wrong time and chocked on it in attempts to not squirt it out his nose. When he could breathe again, she was laughing.

"Are you?" he gasped.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh yes. Can't keep our eyes away. That's why all of us have just given up on clothes and walk around naked."

"Okay, okay, I get the sarcasm. But I thought you guys were all, well," he blushed, "not into that sort of thing. I don't know what I'm saying, I just don't know where he's getting all that."

"Does it matter? It's still funny."

Yami smiled at the both of them, expression once more alight. He looked down at Yugi, pleased, and vanished once more into the puzzle.

"I take it you're feeling a lot better." said Yugi.

"Somewhat. I still don't want to kill you inadvertently, but…" she rubbed her cheeks hard and sighed, "I guess we really can't know what the future holds until it actually comes to us, huh? And who knows. Maybe Shadi warning me ahead of time is enough."

Yugi smiled at his cocoa. "Yeah. Perhaps."

Whatever the reason…at least she was here, with him.

After than she finally gave in and devoured half of the sandwich, which he learned chicken chipotle was her favorite, which was very close to his turkey love. Once they were both rosy cheeked from laughing and full, he coaxed her back out to get her some dry clothes from a nearby clothing store. She had protested wildly, but he pointed out that his clothes wouldn't fit, and even so she probably wasn't ready to face the frustrated Shadi, who would surely go to Yugi's house to look for her first. So she allowed Yugi to get her some clothes she liked even though they came from the clearance rack. It made him smile how overly aware of price she was, not because of his wallet, but because, apparently, she had grown up with a single mother back in North Dakota. The idea of owning new clothes and not hand-me-downs near frightened her.

With a cheap pair of flip-flops and a raincoat on clearance they were back out in the rain, talking about how busy Japan was, how this rain was endlessly strange, how in America not everyone was fat and loved burgers, and a bit on school.

Now and then Yami would float out and watch, his expression unreadable.

"I wonder why we can talk to each other," she said at some point. "I'm pretty sure I don't know Japanese."

"I don't know, because I'm not too good with my English either." He squinted up at the sky. The rain was shimmering curtains of the neon lights of downtown. "I think we should find out what next, though, it's rather late. I did leave the museum right as it was closing."

"Well, I guess I could always find the warehouse, though I don't know where to even begin to look."

Yugi stopped dead. "You're staying in a _warehouse?_ Please tell me it's one that has heating at least."

"Uh, no. It's an abandoned one, actually. Has some rather, uh, graphic graffiti on the wall and everything."

He winced. "Do you know when this time rift thing is suppose to open?" Though he didn't like thinking about it let alone talking about it.

"He said in a day or so. But I think my biggest problem is just finding that stupid place. Though…" she bit her lip. "I don't really want to meet Shadi just yet. He sorta…"

Yugi waited, but when she made no attempts to finish her sentence he supposed it wasn't important.

"If that's the case, we can always drop by my friend Ryou's house. His apartment complex isn't far from here, and I've stayed at his house a few times already. He lives alone, so he likes the company. He also cooks amazing food."

She looked uncertain. "Are you sure we won't be imposing on him? Shouldn't we call ahead first?"

"Do you have a phone?"

"Uh, no."

A roar filled the air and the earth shuddered beneath them. Several people found the momentum to scream as cars screeched and many lost their footing. Yugi found himself on the ground with a wavering Aleah next to him.

"An earthquake?!" he cried.

But even as he looked on in alarm and terror, the screeching cars were replaced by the whinny of horses, and the squealing of rubber tires with the tattling of wooden wheels. The drivers cried out in alarm as their steering wheels were replaced by reins for horses. The glass panes of the buildings towering above them shuddered before vanishing to be replaced by stone towers and pillars.

Aleah held onto his arms tightly. The two stared on as the very sky itself warped with their surroundings, bleeding streaks of blue across the stormy clouds. A white hot, desert sun peeked out, momentarily blinding them.

Only the spirit hovering next to his host noticed the confused and crazed horses charging their way with a carriage full of two screaming women. Yami reached out for the puzzle.

"Yugi! Look out!"


	10. An Experiment

Hey y'all!

I'm sorry this update is late. My computer has completely died and the laptop I have for backup is a million years old and can barely function let alone get on fanfiction. I just waited and beat it around a bit to get it to finally work. Poor thing. Pfft, poor ME!

Also, I graduated college with my bachelors. Woot woot! Please, feel free to send me bacon.

BUT besides all that, I wanted to try something with you all that I've noticed is sometimes rather popular on here, and it just sounds fun. I'm not sure how to end this story. So, I was going to ask you all if you could share your ideas on what the ending should be. Send me the details and whoever's is the most fantabulous I'll write up and post up under your name. Or, if you feel you're just that bad-a of a writer, feel free to just send me the ending written up how you'd like it to be. I'll still give credit to you, of course. I'm not boring enough to take credit for somebody else's work.

Now, if this upsets too many of you and I'm being a bother, send me enough PM complaints (not review complaints please), and I'll give in and throw together whatever ending I can think of. I'm not sure how good it would be, for like I said, I'm kind of lost on how the ending should be. Should she go back to Egypt? Should she fall in love with Yugi and stay there? Go back to the future to North Dakota and find Yugi that way? Should everyone just die?

Please! Let me know! I'll give you folks two weeks.

May the force be with you.

LoweFantasy


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